Tajikistan’s Interior Minister addresses the OSCE Security Committee in Vienna

The Interior Minister of Tajikistan, Colonel General Rahimzoda Ramazon Hamro, addressed the OSCE participating States in the Hofburg Conference Centre, Vienna, on 12 February 2018. Interior Minister Rahimzoda was invited by the Secretary General Thomas Greminger and the Spanish Chair of the Security Committee, Ambassador Victoria Gonzalez Roman, to open this year’s first session of the Security Committee. 

Minister Rahimzoda briefed the Security Committee on the progress and challenges in the police reform process in Tajikistan, as well as on the Interior Ministry’s co-operation with the OSCE in the implementation of the reform. Speaking about relations of the police with local communities, Minister Rahimzoda said: “Tajikistan is focusing on creating conditions for its citizens residing in remote areas to exercise their human and civil rights as close to their places of residence as possible without traveling to the administrative centres.” He noted that so-called New Model Police Stations are being created together with the OSCE. These are police hubs designed to include at least one officer responsible for each basic police function as well as a psychologist and a civil society representative.

The Chair of the Security Committee, Ambassador Victoria Gonzalez Roman, said: “The presentation of the Minister prompted a wide discussion on the broader topic of Security Sector Governance and Reform and regional security co-operation in Central Asia.”

During the discussion Minister Rahimzoda touched upon issues relating to community policing and gender mainstreaming in the context of Tajik Police Force transformation, which were of interest to representatives of participating States.