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This year, the Martin Ennals Foundation celebrates the 30^th anniversary of the Martin Ennals Award, a prestigious distinction awarded by ten of the leading human rights organizations in the world. The Foundation is launching the 2024 festivities with a series of portraits of some of the most outstanding human rights defenders whom the Jury considered. The ceremony in honor of the 2024 Laureates will take place in Geneva on November 21^st.

Dilrabo Samadova is a human rights lawyer from Tajikistan. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Office for Civil Freedoms, a member organisation of the Tajik Coalition against Torture and Impunity, which promotes and protects civil and political rights in Tajikistan. She is widely seen as a veteran human rights activist and a leader for youth activism. Her creative approach, which includes arts, music and social media, has enabled her organisation to go beyond the traditional work of human rights documentation and advocacy, successfully involving the wider population and shedding light on the situation of the most affected, such as women and LGBTI+ people.

“As a woman human rights defender working on some of the most difficult issues in a hostile environment, the Jury wanted to recognize Dilrabo Samadova for the hopeful example of leadership she represents for the younger generation of activists in Tajikistan” revealed Brian Dooley, as representative of Human Rights First, a member organisation of the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award.

The grave injustices Samadova witnessed as a child during the civil war in Tajikistan (1992-1997) shaped her determination to become a lawyer and stand up for a better future for Tajikistan. Shortly after graduating, she founded the organization “Young Lawyers Association Amparo” together with seven classmates to protect the rights of young people, especially child workers and those serving the compulsory two-year military service. Amparo achieved significant feats before it was liquidated by the decision of the court in 2012, such as the adoption of a legislation to end child and students forced labor in cotton harvesting and exposing widespread torture, ill-treatment and hazing of soldiers in the military, based on over 1500 testimonies.

Regretfully the crackdown against the human rights movement would continue to worsen, with the liquidation of 700 non-governmental organizations in the last 18 months and only about 800 lawyers left for a population of 10 million. Lengthy prison sentences have been given to criminalize the legitimate activities of human rights defenders, ranging from seven years to life imprisonment. Others were pushed to relocated outside the country because they were at risk of arrest and harassment. Samadova explains that there is no law to protect human rights defenders, and that the work is always done at personal risk.

Undeterred, she recalls that the arbitrary closure of Amparo actually reinforced her belief that more efforts, more people and more education were needed for the achievement of human rights in Tajikistan. Involving the youth, and its role in shaping Tajikistan’s future became obvious for her at this point. She would then join the Office for Civil Freedoms, which manages two human rights centers in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The centers provide spaces for anyone, ranging from journalists, lawyers, NGO workers, activists and simple volunteers, to bring forward ideas to promote and protect human rights. Participants come together and discuss ideas and projects in different clubs, and the administration look for the means and resources to implement them. “Participants feel really involved that way” she explains.

The 41 years-old lawyer speaks of youth as if it was long behind her. Essentially, she means those who were born after the civil war, after the atrocities, and shares with delight examples of the ideas and productions of young volunteers. She mentions a dance exhibition in northern Tajikistan that highlighted the rights of girls to choose whom and when to marry – “it was a comedy together with strategy” she says. She also highlights how showing the life of a child without housing or water in a comic made it easy for children to understand human rights and something as complex as the responsibility of the government in protecting these rights.

Being caught between restrictive legislations and the misuse of counter-terrorism measures mirroring the influence of the Russian Federation and China, the serious challenges for the respect of human rights in Tajikistan extend to the whole Central Asian region. Spaces like the ones created by Samadova remain one of the last breathing havens for the civil society to rest and circumvent the various anti-rights practices. She admits that she is concerned about losing one of the centers in Dushanbe which is rented and does not belong to the organisation, but when asked how readers and the international community can help, she urges us to use our voice to talk about Tajikistan, to pay attention and give visibility to the human rights situation, to democracy and to security, not only for Tajikistan but for the whole region. “Human rights are a peaceful weapon, it makes people strong” she says, as a last bid for us to join the movement.

If you would like to support Dilrabo Samadova and the Office for Civil Freedoms in purchasing the second human rights center in Dushanbe, please share or donate directly to the organisation at :

Visa: 4444 8888 1130 8513
Alif mobi: +992 900 46 60 25
DC Wallet +992 919 97 32 00

 

VIDEO INTERVIEW – Dilrabo SAMADOVA

 

WRITTEN INTERVIEW – Dilrabo SAMADOVA

Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Dilrabo Samadova, I am a human rights defender from Tajikistan. I am a human rights lawyer and very fortunate person to run the Office for Civil Freedoms, a human rights organization which promotes civil and political rights in Tajikistan. It involves young generation of activists to protect human rights, equality and non-discrimination.

How did you become a human rights defender?

As a kid, I grew up during the civil war in Tajikistan and saw a lot of injustice and deaths. This was one of the reasons I decided to become a lawyer. While studying law, I was introduced to human rights programs and later became a trainer on human rights.

At the end of the second year as a trainer, the administration of the school asked me to leave because my students became very protective of their rights and no longer allowed the administration to interfere and limit their rights. This was the first time I saw that the human rights are a weapon, a peaceful weapon. It makes people strong.

After graduating, seven of my course mates and I founded a youth organization, the “Young Lawyers Association Amparo”, which protected the rights of young people, especially child workers and those serving in the army. We were expecting support from the government because we were combating violations, such as torture and hazing in the army. But a lot of military organizations did not recognize our findings, and combating torture transformed into combating us as human rights defenders. Our organization was liquidated after years. But this decision made us stronger, we understood that human rights need more work, more people, more education. That’s how we started to involve more young activists in our activities.

Could you tell us about your human rights activities?

We manage two very interesting spaces in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. These are beautiful spaces for young people, activists, lawyers, journalists, and NGO workers. They are open to anybody who wants to learn, share, support or receive support about human rights. So different professions, different ages come together through different clubs and meetings. They discuss ideas, and our task is to find means and resources to implement them. Participants feel really involved that way.

I believe to promote and to invest into the young generation will bring a lot of change to our country. We started to cover a lot of interesting topics after we started to involve young volunteers. We started creating comics, videos, music, electronic books, all sort of production to cover all generation from eight years to eighty years old and explains that human rights are not just in the court, not just in smart books or for celebrities, it is everywhere.

We had a dance exhibition in our north of Tajikistan showing the importance of girls’ rights to choose, to choose whom to marry, what to learn, where to work, how to travel. It was dance about who can decide whom I can marry and when I can marry. It was a comedy together with strategy.

In the beginning as a lawyer, I could not understand the importance and how to use comics or dance or guitar music to promote human rights. But when the comics started to show the life of a kid without access to housing or water, a lot of children then understand the importance of housing, of the protecting of the environment, or even something difficult like the responsibility of the government.

We receive most ideas from our volunteers, we have more than 10 clubs now. And we invite journalists and lawyers who work on human rights to conduct trainings in support of the ideas of our volunteers.

Another very important part of our work is providing legal assistance and support when human rights defenders, young activists, journalists or lawyers face persecution and pressure because of their work. We train and accompany them during these difficulties.

Could you briefly tell us about your country and the human rights situation in Tajikistan?

Tajikistan had survived five years of civil war. When it ended in 1997, the government and the population put a lot of efforts to develop the country. . But since the civil society space has been shrinking, especially for the last six, seven years. There is a high level of corruption and civil and political rights are deteriorating year by year, with lot of cases of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, even arbitrary killings. International organisations and UN mechanisms have reported the same issues.

It means that a lot of people are now left without support and without representatives. Only a small number of lawyers are left to provide legal assistance, 800 lawyers for a population of 10 million. Some regions, especially mountain regions, have no lawyer. Can you imagine, no lawyer in the city or in the village?

We do have an ombudsman, but it lacks independence, either financial independence or the initiative to adopt legislations to fulfill the ombudsman’s obligations.

What is it like being a human rights defender in Tajikistan?

There are persecution and pressure against human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and political activists. Unfortunately, a lot of my colleagues were imprisoned during the last three years. Those with whom we worked shoulder to shoulder, with whom we fight against torture. They received criminal imprisonment sentences ranging from seven years to life imprisonment. Others were pushed to relocated outside the country because they could be arrested or harassed. More than 700 NGOs were liquidated during the last 18 months.

We don’t have law to protect human right defenders in Tajikistan, neither in other Central Asian countries. There is no mechanism, really, that I believe can help me in a difficult situation. So it is our personal risk.

Even though the situation is very difficult, we keep dialogue with the government. We share our ideas and try to convince them to promote human rights and to fulfill their human rights obligations. Because it is not the responsibility of human rights defenders, it is the responsibility of the government.

What are your aspirations for you and your country?

Very often we hear that human rights came to Tajikistan from the West or the East. But we cannot agree because the first declaration on human rights[1] was created by Kurushi Kabir (Cyrus the Great), one of our heroes. He accepted human rights as a natural good belonging to all humans. There is no conflict between human rights and security if there are correct policies, legislations and good governance.

The government at high level understands better the importance of human rights, but those who implement the law in small cities and villages are doing the opposite of the national politics. They are putting a lot of pressure on human rights defenders at the local level. That is why the government should first focus on combatting corruption, and support human rights defenders and civil society as a way to promote security and economic stability.

I would love to finish my story about human rights in Tajikistan with something positive. We have beautiful mountains and nature, we have great people, very strong, very positive. I hope that very soon I will share proudly that the human rights situation is changing for the better thanks to this great new generation.

How can the international community and those listening help you achieve this vision?

Tajikistan receives less attention and support from the international society, sometimes people do not even know that such country exists. Even compared to other Central Asian countries, human right defenders receive very limited financial support. Some NGOs have worked for more than 10 years without any grant support or the financial incomes. They need different types of support, financial, but also with expertise, recognition and moral support. So I would ask all of you to cover Tajikistan, to get involved, to pay attention to the human rights situation, democracy and security. In Tajikistan, but also in other Central Asian countries.

As for the Office for Civil Freedoms, my organisation, I promised my team that I will retire as soon as we purchase the space in Dushanbe. We risk losing one of our spaces because we are renting it. Losing that space means limiting the possibility and opportunity for young people, so we announced a crowdfunding in Tajikistan and asked our friends abroad to help us to share it. Please help us!

[1] The Cyrus Cylinder has been described by some as the first charter of human rights.