Turkmen Rights Activists to Address Euro MPs

Human rights activists from Turkmenistan will discuss the country’s dismal record when they address the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee on October 9.

Vyacheslav Mamedov, who heads the Civil Democratic Union of Turkmenistan based in The Netherlands, and Farid Tukhbatullin, head of the Turkmenistan Human Rights Initiative in Vienna, are planning to focus one one of many issues: freedom of movement.

The Turkmen government continues to maintain as blacklists of dissidents, journalists and anyone else deemed politically unreliable, who are barred from travelling abroad and hindered even in moving around inside the country.

They will also highlight the Turkmen authorities’ refusal to allow non-government organisations to operate legally.

On October 14, Mamedov and Tukhbatullin will raise similar concerns at the assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Peru.

This article was produced as part of News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.

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