Spotlight on Right of Assembly

Rahmatullo Odinaev reports that anyone planning to hold a demonstration is required to seek permission from the authorities in advance. However, since this is never granted, the gatherings often go ahead anyway but are regarded as “unsanctioned”.



Opposition parties say the consistent failure to approve public meeting runs counter to Tajikistan’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly



Rahmatillo Zoirev, who heads the opposition Social Democratic Party, accuses the government of using the experience of the 1992-97 civil war in Tajikistan, and the mass rallies that preceded it, as a pretext for suppressing public outpourings of anger.



“They are afraid that protest actions will return the country to the Nineties ,” he said.