The TIHR has prepared a review of the situation pertaining to Jehovah’s Witnesses to illustrate how the authorities of Turkmenistan treat the international obligations.
In 1996 Turkmenistan signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In 1997 Turkmenistan signed and ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which allowed Turkmen citizens to submit individual complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee in cases where national legal remedies had been exhausted.
As of September 2020, the UN Human Rights Committee posted information on 22 complaints from Turkmenistan, 14 of which are from Jehovah’s Witnesses (17 applicants).Out of those 14 cases only one (involving 2 applicants) is based on persecution for religious beliefs and fabricated criminal charges.
The remaining 13 cases (15 applicants) deal with complaints on the grounds of criminal prosecution for refusal to perform military service due to their religious beliefs.
The national courts of Turkmenistan have never ruled in favour of conscientious objectors. Appeals submitted to courts of various levels are rejected.
The UN Committee claims that even if a direct reference to the right to conscientious objection is missing in the Covenant, the right is prescribed in article 18 because the obligation to use a deadly weapon might seriously impair a person’s freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
This right envisages exemption from military service for any individual if such service contradicts his religion or beliefs as well as the right to practice them. A State may, if it wishes, compel the objector to undertake a civilian alternative to military service, outside the military sphere and not under military command.
The TIHR consider it unacceptable that not only does the government fail to abide by the decisions of the UN Committee, but subject to repression the applicants and their Turkmenistan-based family members for contacting international organizations.
The pdf document is available here.