Iskra Kirova, Human Rights Watch
19 March 2025
Thank you Chairs, Honourable Members of the European Parliament,
Thank you for the invitation to address this subcommittee and the delegation.
The forthcoming first EU-Central Asia summit marks a new stage in relations between the EU and Central Asia. We urge you to seize this moment to insist that the EU put human rights at the center of its intensifying engagement with Central Asian states.
The EU is in the middle of accelerating its high-level diplomacy, deepening bilateral agreements and connections to the region in various spheres. Rights protections and the rule of law are essential to secure the EU's interests in any security, economic or other partnership.
The failure of Central Asian governments to uphold human rights, including freedom of political expression, is at the core of recent internal instability in the region, particularly the violently suppressed unrest in Kazakhstan in January 2022, violent crackdown on protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast of Tajikistan in November 2021 and May 2022, and in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan in July 2022. To date there has been limited to no accountability for the victims of police brutality in these protests.
While the picture is not entirely negative, with some areas of progress, human rights records across Central Asia have broadly remained bad or even worsened. This is hardly conducive to stability.
There are two areas of concern I wish to highlight in more detail: the situation of media and civil society.
Human Rights Watch has documented significant media restrictions across Central Asia, with tight government control and suppression of independent journalism. In Turkmenistan, the state exerts total control over access to information, prohibiting content deemed offensive to the government, blocking websites, including those of foreign news organizations and independent media, highly limiting internet access and cracking down on VPN users and providers. In Kazakhstan, a new media law threatens media freedom, while courts have handed down seven-year prison sentences to journalists on alleged "extremism" charges. In Uzbekistan, the government has harassed and imprisoned bloggers and jailed others for up to five years for "insulting the president online." Kyrgyzstan's once vibrant media reached a new low in 2024, with the first imprisonment of journalists from an independent investigative outlet, Temirov Live. Courts also ordered the closure of an award-winning investigative outlet, Kloop Media, alleging it failed to register as a media outlet and made "public calls for the violent seizure of power." These are the types of charges and sentences that journalists are facing in the region. Tajikistan has targeted journalists reporting on the crackdown in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), with seven journalists behind bars for their critical reporting.
When it comes to civil society, several Central Asian countries have enacted restrictive legislation targeting non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Kyrgyzstan, a law adopted in 2024 - over which this house passed an urgency resolution - requires foreign-funded NGOs to register as "foreign representatives" and submit to enhanced government oversight. This legislation mirrors Russia's foreign agents law, and even if not fully implemented at this stage, it has had a stifling effect on civil society, with many organizations self-liquidating or ceasing activities on the territory of the country already before the deadline to volunteer to be included in the "foreign representatives" registry.
There is virtually no independent civil society in Turkmenistan. The state continues to groundlessly and arbitrarily bar actual and perceived critics and activists, and their relatives from foreign travel. It routinely represses dissidents abroad and their families inside the country. Uzbekistan has targeted independent rights activists with unfounded criminal charges, and continues to deny registration to independent rights groups. The government has not enacted a new NGO code, despite promises to do so. In Kazakhstan, the government stifles activism using its vaguely worded extremism laws to target activists with lengthy prison sentences. The government is also toying with the idea of a foreign-agent style legislation.
As mentioned, there are some areas of progress. Domestic violence is an issue that Central Asian governments have shown a willingness to address, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan passing new laws in recent years that increase protections for women against gender-based violence (GBV). Yet, data and media reports show that domestic violence remains widespread throughout the region with a number of particularly gruesome recent cases. New laws passed in Kazakhstan failed to outright criminalise the offense of domestic violence. Legislation in Uzbekistan still retains problematic reconciliation clauses. Adequate implementation of the laws is lagging throughout the region.
How can the EU help address these challenges?
The new generation of Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (EPCAs) that the EU is signing with Central Asian states set clear expectations. They are founded on the mutual respect and cooperation for the protection of human rights and rule of law as an "essential element" of the agreement.
The EU should use these agreements to seek and achieve specific advances for human rights, particularly as they also offer important trade and investment opportunities that Central Asian states are interested in. An important moment of leverage is the signature and ratification of these agreements, in which the European Parliament also has a say. It should insist on specific human rights deliverables, whether it is the repeal of repressive NGO or media legislation or the release of peaceful activists and journalists.
We ask you to act in this spirit as you consider your ratification of the EPCA agreement with Kyrgyzstan. The EU's signature of this agreement in the wake of Kyrgyzstan's adoption of the "foreign representatives" law sent a deeply troubling signal about the EU's commitment to protect the space for civil society in the country.
Similarly, we call on you to press the EEAS and the European Commission to insist on concrete human rights progress before signing an EPCA with Uzbekistan or negotiating one with Tajikistan.
We commend the European Parliament for taking a principled position and not consenting to the EU-Turkmenistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement until there are significant improvements in the government's human rights record.
Once in place, the EU should fully embrace the mandate it has under the EPCAs to raise human rights concerns with the authorities. Kazakhstan became the first country in Central Asia to sign an EPCA but we have not seen the kind of concerted action by the EU to insist, for example, on a genuine independent investigation into the January 2022 events that the agreement empowers it to.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are also beneficiaries of preferential access to the EU market under the EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). The scheme slashes EU customs duties for countries that commit to implementing 27 international conventions on labour and human rights, environmental and climate protection, and good governance. Yet, Human Rights Watch's reporting and the European Commission's own assessment show both countries to be in serious violation of most core international human rights treaties.
In fact, the situation in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan has progressively worsened since they were granted the trade preferences. Failing to impose consequences when countries do not fulfil their obligations puts into question the credibility of GSP+. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the European External Action Service should demand that partners fulfil their human rights obligations or face the prospect of losing preferential trade access. The experience of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan should serve to raise caution before the EU takes forward any negotiations on GSP+ with Tajikistan.
In conclusion, the EU-Central Asia summit is a moment to take stock of developments and the countries' commitments and obligations. The summit should also be an opportunity to connect to and demonstrate support for local civil society, including for example with a high-profile civil society side-event. Meeting civil society alongside leaders will send a strong and tangible message of the EU's commitment to human rights and civic space in the region.
This summit is an important milestone. The EU should use this moment to shape a well-rounded and sustainable partnership with Central Asian states that requires human rights to be a central part of the agenda.
Thank you!
