HRW: UPR submission Tajikistan

The report states it is Human Rights Watch’s submission to the 53rd Session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Tajikistan, dated 9 April 2026. The report states it highlights HRW’s concerns regarding the Tajik government’s compliance with international obligations since the last UPR in 2021, including violent crackdowns on peaceful protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in November 2021 and May 2022, mass NGO closures, transnational repression of government critics abroad (particularly in Turkey and Russia), and apparent war crimes during a September 2022 border dispute with Kyrgyzstan. The report states Tajik forces shot and killed at least eight civilians on 16 September 2022, including elderly men with disabilities in their homes, and destroyed civilian infrastructure including kindergartens, schools, medical facilities, and official buildings. The report states 205 GBAO residents had been sentenced by 2023 following closed trials, with 11 receiving life sentences and 85 receiving terms of 10–29 years. The report states prominent activists sentenced include Manuchehr Kholiknazarov (16 years), Khushruz Djumaev (8 years), Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva (21 years), and Khursand Mamadshoev (18 years). The report states five ethnic Pamiri activists died in custody in 2025. The report states authorities closed more than 500 NGOs in 2022 and a further 239 in the first half of 2023. The report states journalist Rukhshona Khakimova was convicted in February 2025 on classified charges and sentenced to eight years. The report states Germany deported Tajik dissidents Abdullohi Shamsiddin, Bilol Qurbonaliev, and Dilmurod Ergashev in 2023–2024 who were immediately detained on arrival.