During the OSCE ODIHR International Human Dimension Conference held in October 2023 in Warsaw, Poland, a team from the Human Rights Movement "Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan" made a presentation at the plenary session with the participation of experts, country delegates, diplomatic missions and international organizations from the OSCE region. Bir Duino also organized its own side-event on "Human Dimension: Situation with human rights and rule of law in Central Asia". The event was moderated by the Director of the Human Rights Movement "Bir Duino - Kyrgyzstan" Tolekan Ismailova, key experts: Yevgeniy Zhovtis, Head of the "Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights", Olena Uvarova, Ukraine, PhD, Postdoc Wageningen University International Lab on BHR in Yaroslav Mudryi NLU, Batyr Botobekov, coordinator of the "Voice of Freedom" social project, Mukhaye Abduraupova, pro-bono lawyer, Director of Positive Dialogue Public Association, Anara Ibraeva, Head of "Kadyr Kasiyet" Public Association, Ilya Nuzov, FIDH, Head of the EECA desk and coordinator Murat Karypov. During the OSCE ODIHR International Human Dimension Conference Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan Team also spoke at a side event to discuss the situation of torture and proposed key recommendations to improve the current situation within the framework of international legal treaty obligations and agreements for policy decision makers of OSCE region.   

Dear OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Meeting participants,

Nowadays in the global world we face with the increasing wide range of crisis when the most problematic issues are arising, that processes require our specific attention of OSCE members. 

From the human rights movement “Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan” we attract attention of all OSCE members to the following issues:

1. It is very important for us to rethink our methods and approaches in protection of the human rights and act strictly according to OSCE Budapest Memorandum strategic principles[1]. In this regard we call for joint cooperative actions to create more opportunities for access to justice for the most vulnerable groups:

2. Threats to civic society and it’s important to increase to role of OSCE in order to counter act the disasters in order to stop repressions in all countries of Central Asia. In Kazakhstan the is a list of foreign NGOs was illegally accepted. The law of foreign representatives was initiated that directly affects the situation with human rights defenders in Kyrgyzstan that should be cancelled because of contradiction to national constitution and OSCE obligations.

Increasing border conflicts and Issues of global climate change are affecting the situation with human rights and freedoms.  

4. Anti-discrimination law should be accepted in order to promote gender equality and protect the fundamental rights and freedoms in Central Asia initiated by the parliament deputy Dastan Bekeshev and Coalition for equality.

In this regard we suggest multilateral cooperation of the open dialogue with civil society organizations for effective promotion of United Nations Sustainable development goals, business and human rights principles and the UN Security Council resolution №1325. 

5. In order to decrease the risks and threats during mass manifestations internet connection should not be limited like it was during protests in Gorno Badakshan and Karakalpakstan or Kazakhstan in January 2022 when musician Vicram Ruzakhunov became the victim of torture and still is looking for justice,. Kyrgyzstan ratified all UN documents and being a member of the United Nations, has ratified all the basic documents on compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law and non-extradition of persons to a country where there is systemic torture, discrimination and aggression. Civic activist from Russia Mansur Movlaev was detained by law enforcement agencies in August 2023.

Kyrgyzstan must comply with the requirement of Article 3 of the Convention against Torture in terms of expulsion after serving his sentence. Mansur was persecuted according to Article 378 the norms of the article on illegal crossing of the state border do not apply to asylum seekers. It is important to cancel his court decision and provide him refugee status. 

We should unite our efforts against impunity the face of global risks and threats especially in the year of celebrating 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 25th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.  

In order to discuss all mentioned issues we kindly invite all participants to join the side event of the Human Rights Movement Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan about the situation with human rights in Central Asia.

Thank you!