OSCE Centre in Dushanbe

Penitentiary reform

Since 2000, the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe has supported the Tajik Government's prison reform programme, which has so far seen little progress. Cases of human rights violations, including non-abidance by due process, abuse and even torture, have continued. As a result of an OSCE initiative, the country's penitentiary system was transferred from the Interior to the Justice Ministry in 2003.

The Centre has also sponsored periodic conferences and roundtable discussions that focus on the need to establish a human rights ombudsman and alternative sentencing. These meetings have also provided an opportunity to assess prison conditions and discuss draft laws on citizens' and economic procedure codes.

In 2007, the Centre will be assisting the Government in improving its pre-trial detention and prison conditions in order to allow for independent inspections of detention centres and to pursue its Penitentiary Reform Programme, bringing it in line with its OSCE commitments.

Legal and judicial reform

The Centre in Dushanbe assists the Government in aligning Tajikistan's legislative and judicial practices with OSCE commitments and international human rights standards and practices. To gauge the level of access to justice for all, the Centre also monitors the situation of individual complaints and strives to co-ordinate its efforts with other organizations.

In the past, the Centre has funded observers from non-governmental organizations to monitor and analyze court proceedings throughout the country according to international fair trial standards.

In 2007, the Centre plans to support a study on the Judicial Reform Index for Tajikistan (JRI), which will be used as a tool to assess the judicial system progress. The Centre has also begun a project on property rights, especially with regards to cases of possible illegal confiscation of individual property by municipal authorities.

Human rights education

The OSCE Centre in Dushanbe has also acted as a human rights information source for civil society, the public and State bodies. OSCE-supported annual summer schools have helped train future leaders in international human rights standards and commitments.

In 2006, the Centre supported a series of cultural and sport events to mark International Human Rights Day (on 10 December) in Dushanbe and Qurghonteppa. Through a Netherlands-funded project, the Centre has supported a Government programme to introduce human rights as a tenth- and eleventh-grade subject in all high schools.

To provide educational opportunities for gifted, yet vulnerable, young people in the mostly rural population, the Centre is seeking extra-budgetary funds for a project that would allow students to enter the best undergraduate institutions in Tajikistan and at least one graduate programme in Europe.