For years, the government of Tajikistan has ruled the country according to its will, ignoring criticism in the face of numerous human rights violations. This deeply rooted impunity is now being challenged before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On April 10, two NGOs – the Ukrainian International Volunteer Fund and Freedom for Eurasia – together with the banned opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (PRIT), filed a complaint with the ICC. The complaint targets Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his government, accusing them of crimes against humanity.
Muhiddin Kabiri, head of PRIT, said:
“We hope that the ICC, after examining our complaint, will initiate criminal proceedings and issue arrest warrants for those responsible, including Tajikistan’s most senior leaders.”
A situation that has been deteriorating for years
Although the evidence submitted covers the period from 2002 to 2024, the events of recent years are sufficient to demonstrate the impunity enjoyed by the Tajik authorities.
In May 2022, during peaceful protests in the Nagorny-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), the government launched an “anti-terrorist operation” that left dozens dead and hundreds arrested. Lawyers, activists, artists and journalists, often unconnected with the protests, were arrested. More than a dozen Pamiris living in Russia were forcibly deported to Tajikistan, imprisoned immediately on arrival.
GBAO is home to over 200,000 Pamiris, a Shiite minority with languages and traditions distinct from the Tajik Sunni majority. Since the country’s independence in 1991, this region has resisted attempts by the central government to impose its authority.
Today, Pamirie culture is threatened with extinction. The government is confiscating, or attempting to confiscate, the infrastructure built by the Aga Khan Development Network: hotels, schools, medical centers, universities, parks. Even portraits of the Aga Khan are banned from homes.
Systematic political repression
Against the backdrop of a planned transfer of power to the president’s son, Rustam Emomali, the regime is striving to eliminate all opposition. The PRIT, once an official party, was banned in 2015, branded “extremist” following an alleged coup attempt. Fourteen of its leaders have been sentenced to long prison terms. One of them, Muhammadali Fayzmuhammad, died in custody in July 2024 at the age of 65.
Trials of PRIT members, GBAO protesters and other critical figures are systematically held behind closed doors, on the pretext of protecting “state secrets”. Acquittals are almost non-existent: in 2021, out of more than 10,000 cases, only ten were dismissed.
A faint hope: international justice
Despite condemnations from the UN, NGOs and governments, the Tajik authorities systematically ignore calls to respect fundamental rights. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has denounced several violations, but to no avail.
The lawyers who prepared the complaint spent four years gathering evidence. Freedom for Eurasia claims that the acts committed fall into several categories of crimes against humanity: murder, extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention, religious and political persecution.
As Tajikistan has signed the Rome Statute, the ICC is competent to investigate.
“Faced with the total absence of domestic remedies, the international route is the only hope of justice for the victims,” concludes Freedom for Eurasia.
