As was previously reported, despite its obligations, Turkmenistan has not extended an invitation to the UN special procedures who play a key role in assessing the human rights situation in individual countries and providing expert advice to governments.
The National Human Rights Action Plan for 2016-2020, which envisages visits by the UN Special Rapporteurs to Turkmenistan, expired in 2020 but no visits by special procedures took place in these years.
The Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) and International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) would like to draw the attention of Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister to the fact that the requests from a number of UN special procedures to visit Turkmenistan are currently pending and no visits by special to date has been finally agreed and scheduled.
TIHR and IPHR call on Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry to:
Accept the requests of all UN special procedures who have asked to visit the country, including the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and others.
Work closely with the different special procedures on facilitating, planning and preparing for their visits to Turkmenistan at the earliest possible dates with account of the COVID-19 related situation; and draw up a plan/schedule for these visits together with the relevant mandate holders.
Ensure that the different special procedures are able to carry out forthcoming visits in full accordance with their terms of reference, including by having confidential and unsupervised contacts with civil society representatives, witnesses and other private persons, and enjoying full access to all places considered necessary for the fulfilment of their mandates.
Cooperate constructively with the special procedures on the implementation of all aspects of their mandates and take concrete measures to implement their recommendations, including those issued in the context of country visits.
Provide assurances that no one who has been in contact with special procedure mandate holders or provided information to them about the human rights situation in Turkmenistan will suffer threats, harassment or punishment for doing so.
The full text of the address in a PDF format is available here.
The post TIHR and IPHR human rights activists call on Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry to facilitate visits by the UN special procedures first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.