While fighting for civil rights, Tajikistan lacks focus on economic and social rights

Surrounded by Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. Approximately 36 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and the World Bank assess that 52 percent of the GDP consists of remittances from Tajiki migrants making a living abroad.

In that context it is hardly surprising, that the Ombudsman Institution is fighting an uphill battle defending the economic, social and cultural rights of the Tajiki people.

“More than 50 percent of the individual complaints we receive concerns economic, social and cultural rights. We need to be strengthened if we are to deal properly with these rights,” the Ombudsman, Mr. Zarif Alizoda, explains.

Civil rights at the top of the agenda

The Danish Institute for Human Rights is working in partnership with the Tajiki Ombudsman Institution. One of the top priorities is working on economic, social and cultural rights as they tend to be forgotten in the Tajiki human rights work.

“Wide attention is given to the issues of civil and political rights and anti-torture. But there is no hierarchy between the specific human rights: protection of economic, social and cultural rights are as important as protection of freedom of speech,” project manager Burmaa Nyamaa of the Danish Institute for Human Rights says.

UN raises issues

Tajikistan was reviewed by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in late February 2015. The committee raised a number of important issues. There is no national strategy and action plan on human rights in Tajikistan, likewise the rights of labor migrants and their integration in society is a matter of concern for the committee.

There are also major concerns over funding for the health sector as well of the quality of it. Child labor, the right to education and the rights of people with disabilities are issues that need to be tackled in Tajikistan.

The list of problems relating to economic, social and cultural rights goes on, and that is the reason that future cooperation between the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Tajiki Ombudsman will be centered on strengthening the capacity of the Ombudsman on economic, social and cultural rights.