Tajikistan: UN Members Urge Stronger Rights Protection

(Geneva, November 10, 2026) - United Nations members urged Tajikistan during its periodic United Nations peer review on November 5, 2026, to take urgent action to protect human rights in the country and end repression against government opponents.

Member countries called for the release of journalists, lawyers and civil society activists from unlawful detention, for freedom of speech, for action to tackle gender-based violence, and for accountability for violent crackdowns in the country's Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region.

"Tajikistan has openly flouted United Nations peer review recommendations to the detriment of its people's human rights and freedoms," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Tajikistan should use this opportunity to take the advice of its peers and end its systematic human rights abuses."

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council in which member countries review other countries' human rights records every four and a half years and issue recommendations to address concerns. In Tajikistan's 2021 review, the government accepted 172 out of the 234 recommendations and noted 62 of the others. But the government has failed to implement key recommendations and human rights conditions have worsened sharply since 2021, Human Rights Watch said.

Member states praised Tajikistan for ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopting a National Strategy for Protection of Human Rights until 2038, and passing a Law on the Equality and Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination in 2022.

However, several countries expressed alarm at the worsening human rights situation in Tajikistan. Germany noted that it "remains concerned about repression against civil society, journalists, human rights defenders, religious organizations, and the political opposition, including through torture and lack of judicial independence." Countries urged Tajikistan to end reprisals against opposition figures, nongovernmental organizations, activists, and journalists; to protect freedom of expression and media freedom; to abolish the death penalty; and to establish mechanisms to prevent torture and ill treatment.

Several countries, including Brazil, France and the Netherlands urged Tajikistan to conduct thorough investigations into the 2021-2022 events in Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region. France called for an "independent, impartial, and transparent investigation of deaths of civilians and allegations of human rights violations in Badakhshan." In May 2022, police reportedly killed up to 40 people in the autonomous region during so-called security operations.

The police also reportedly arbitrarily detained and tortured more than 200 protesters, including 205 residents of the region who were sentenced to prison in closed trials in 2021 and 2022.

More than a dozen UN member states urged Tajikistan to uphold its commitments to allow civil society organizations to operate unhindered. In this context Estonia, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine called on Tajikistan to bring its counter terrorism legislation into line with international human rights standards. Poland stated that "overly broad definitions of the terrorist threats and extremist phenomenon may lead to disproportionate restrictions on human rights".

Tajikistan has been dismantling the foundations of independent civil society since its last UPR. After closing down more than 500 nongovernmental organizations in 2022, Tajik authorities announced the closure of another 239 organizations in the first half of 2023, either through court decisions or because they were forced to self-liquidate.

While some countries welcomed Tajikistan's recent progress on women's rights, other countries urged Tajikistan to address widespread gender-based violence. Belgium, Chile, Iceland, Switzerland, and the UK said that Tajikistan should criminalize gender-based and domestic violence. Several countries also recommended eliminating child, early and forced marriages. Estonia, which urged the government to "introduce a consent based definition of rape in its legal code", was one of a number of states that called on Tajikistan to bring its rape legislation into line with international standards.

Several countries, including Chile, Japan and Ukraine called on Tajikistan to strengthen protections against enforced disappearance while Lithuania urged it to end transnational repression. Transnational repression by the Tajik government has involved enforced disappearances, unlawful renditions, abusive use of Interpol Red Notices, and harassment of family members in Tajikistan of opponents in exile.

In October 2026, Tajikistan's lower chamber of parliament approved a decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which will take effect one year after the formal UN notification to the UN secretary-general. Several countries urged Tajikistan to reconsider. ICC judges found in March 2026 that as an ICC member country, Tajikistan failed to comply with its obligation to arrest and surrender Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was under an ICC arrest warrant, during his visit in October 2025 and referred the matter to the court's Assembly of States Parties for further action.

"Tajikistan told UN members during the review that it is fully committed to international human rights standards, but it has not demonstrated its commitment," Williamson said. "Its credibility on the international stage would increase if it turns words into actions with specific steps to end rights abuses by state authorities and promote basic freedoms."