Brussels, 10 December 2010. Today is Human Rights Day, which this year is celebrated with the particular aim of recognizing and acclaiming the achievements of the world's human rights defenders, many of whom work at great personal risk. The International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) would like to use this occasion to highlight the situation of human rights defenders in Central Asia, who face many and serious challenges in their work.
Because of their efforts to stand up to injustice, discrimination and abuse, Central Asian human rights defenders are intimidated, threatened, denounced, accused of slander, prosecuted on politically motivated charges, imprisoned after unfair trials and harassed and punished in other ways. The following are only a few examples of challenges encountered by human rights activists from this region in recent months:
Human rights defenders in Kyrgyzstan have been intimidated, harassed, publicly condemned and physically attacked because of their efforts to investigate and ensure true accountability for the inter-ethnic violence that rocked the country this summer. Human rights defenders providing legal assistance to ethnic Uzbeks accused of participating in the violence have faced threats and pressure. Azimzhan Askarov, a defender of Uzbek ethnicity who documented looting, arson and violent attacks during the peak of the inter-ethnic clashes, was subsequently accused of participating in riots where a police officer of Kyrgyz ethnicity was killed. In November, an appeal court upheld a life sentence against Askarov following an unfair trial. As reported by Citizens against Corruption, an IPHR partner organization that monitored the trial, the process violated the principles of equality of arms and presumption of innocence and deprived Askarov and the other defendants of the opportunity to mount an effective defense. During the trial, relatives of the dead policeman repeatedly interfered in the process and shouted insults and threats against the defendants and their lawyers and even physically attacked them. Askarov is also believed to have been tortured during interrogations. Around the time of the appeal hearing, his health seriously deteriorated and there are concerns that he may not have received adequate treatment.