Ladies and gentlemen!

I am from Tajikistan, and more than 200 of my colleagues are currently in prisons in Tajikistan, and two of them have life sentences. The only sin of these prisoners is that they were members of the opposition party of Tajikistan. In 2015, the government of Tajikistan imprisoned them for many years on false and groundless charges, and several of them were killed in prisons for various reasons.

In 2020, the government admitted to imprisoning 113 people accused of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is evidence that it detained, tortured and imprisoned around 500 people on these charges.

In addition, in May and June of this year, more than 200 other people from Badakhshan were arrested, tortured and sent to prison for many years.

Ladies and gentlemen!

In short, Tajik prisons are full of political activists, journalists and free-thinking intellectuals, and one person (Emomali Rahmon) and his family members have been in power for about 30 years.

Unfortunately, despite so many political prisoners and the autocracy of this family government, many Western countries and international organizations cooperate closely and not only do not say anything about the severe violation of human rights in their meetings and conversations, but they praise these autocrats.

Therefore, I suggest as following:

1) I demand from the American government to implement the “Magnitsky Law” (Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act) against Tajik officials who are directly involved in human rights violations, torture and corruption;

2) I demand from the OSCE, especially the democratic countries that are members of this influential international organization, to implement the Moscow mechanism regarding the human rights situation in Tajikistan. I think that the implementation of the Moscow Mechanism will be very effective, and some Western countries are ready to take such a step.

3) I have a personal request. Personally, I have suffered many blows from Emomali Rahmon’s regime and I am a victim of this regime’s oppression. When I see that a high-ranking Western diplomat in Tajikistan not only does not say anything about the violation of human rights but also describes and praises some members of the Rahmon family and calls him a “star”, I take it very seriously. A personal request to all democratic governments and international organizations to tell their diplomats to, at least, not publish such things.

Thank you for your attention!

Abdusattor Boboev at the OSCE/ODIHR conference, 09/29/2022. Warsaw