Together with the NGO Coalitions against Torture in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the Uzbekistani NGOs Association for Human Rights in Central Asia and Restoration of Justice, the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the Polish Helsinki Foundation, International Partnership for Human Rights published an overview document on torture and ill-treatment in Central Asia which was disseminated at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Warsaw on 12 September 2018.Torture and ill-treatment continue to be widely used in all five Central Asian states. Statistics testify to this: in Kazakhstan the Prosecutor General’s Office reported 98 cases filed under criminal proceedings for the crime of torture from January to August 2018, and the Coalition against Torture registers about 200 cases annually; in Kyrgyzstan the Prosecutor General’s Office received 435 complaints of torture or ill-treatment in 2017; in Tajikistan the NGO Coalition against Torture and Impunity registered 66 new cases of torture and other ill-treatment in 2017 (a significant increase in comparison with previous years). Due to the highly repressive nature of the regimes in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and a lack of transparency NGOs are unable to keep meaningful statistics, but activists continue to receive credible reports of torture.
Read the full statement here.