CENTRAL ASIA: US human rights report needs to inform policy - HRW
The US State Department’s annual report on human rights needs to inform Washington’s policies in Central Asia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
“The report is strong, and it is generally strong every year. What concern me are the next steps; how does the US use the report when formulating policy towards Central Asia? With growing repression and no independent investigation of the Andijan massacre [where up to 1,000 civilians were killed by Uzbek security forces in May 2005], I believe the EU [European Union] has taken significant action, but the US is in a worrying holding pattern with Uzbekistan", Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IRIN from New York.
Many Central Asian states failed to improve their human rights record in 2005, according to the survey, with violations worsening in some countries, such as Uzbekistan.
The ‘2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’, released on 8 March, said the Uzbek government’s human rights record, already poor, had “worsened considerably” during the year. Among the abuses highlighted in the report are repression of the opposition and the media, suspicious prison deaths and systematic torture of detainees.
More: alertnet.org
Related Travel Information
CENTRAL ASIA: Human rights situation remains poor
Human rights abuses throughout Central Asia remain common despite some positive developments towards reform, a new report by Amnesty International (AI)said on Tuesday.
There are still a lot of serious issues remaining, Maisy Weicherding, a researcher for the watchdog groups Eurasia team, covering Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, said from London, citing issues of freedom of expression, slander, libel and arbitrary detention.
In the name of the war on terror, we are seeing more vulnerable groups, including ethnic minorities, asylum-seekers, refugees, as well as suspected members of banned Islamic groups or those perceived to
SAFMA concerned over journalists` killings in South Asia
Expressing grave concern over condition of media in South Asia and impediments in the expression of freedom in the region, South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) on Wednesday released its third report `Media Monitor 2005`, which encompasses the condition of the journalists in the SAARC member states.
The report was released in SAFMA meeting chaired by SAFMA President Ziauddin, which was also attended by SAFMA President Islamabad Chapter Aroosa Alam and other office bearers of the association.
Presenting the report Secretary General of SAFMA said during 2005, twelve journalists were killed in seven
Analysis: U.N. to Central Asia cooperate
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The U.N. Development Program says Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan could double their incomes over the next 10 years.
That is a pretty ambitious projection by the UNDP in a report released in Tokyo Wednesday on the Central Asia states. The question is how?
Economic cooperation is suggested.
"This report clearly identifies the immense potential economic and human benefits of regional cooperation for Central Asia and its neighbors," said Assistant Secretary-General Kalman Mizsei, UNDP Director for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, in remarks prepared for release
Disappearances increase in Asia, rights group says
Several hundred people in Pakistan have disappeared, apparently taken into detention in connection with the war on terrorism, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
So called enforced disappearance has long been a problem in strife-torn countries such as Nepal and Sri Lanka, but new patterns have emerged in South Asia related to the war on terrorism, such as the Pakistani cases, it said.
Whilst many of those have eventually been acknowledged as being held in Guantanamo Bay, others are believed still to be held in Pakistani detention although their precise whereabouts
First human bird flu deaths outside East Asia
Two Turkish teenagers have died of bird flu, probably H5N1, according to the World Health Organization and the Turkish government. They are the first fatalities from avian influenza outside East Asia. There are also about a dozen more cases in the region, some serious.
But there is so far no indication that the virus has begun spreading readily between humans, which it must do to become pandemic. Like most of the other 142 reported human cases so far, the Turkish victims appear to have been infected directly by sick chickens.
In October, Turkey became the
