Ashgabat, 27 august 2019: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supports the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan in reporting on human rights to UN treaty bodies. As part of cooperation with the Institute of State, Law and Democracy, UNDP has organized a technical workshop with representatives of the working group of the Inter-agency Commission on implementation of Turkmenistan’s obligations under human rights and humanitarian law on preparation of the combined twelfth and thirteen’s report on International Convention Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The report is due in October 2019.

“The working process with the members of the Working Group of the Inter-Agency Commission stimulates the drafting process of the report on CERD and participation of the state bodies and independent institutions in this process largely contributes to the quality of the report, which on the one hand should reflect the progress made by Turkmenistan in reporting period, and on the other hand, informs the Committee on the work, which has to be done in the future to implement all the remaining recommendations of the Committee,” stated George Tugushi, invited expert. “My previous and current experience with the Working group on UPR (2018) implementation once again shows the importance and commitment of the Government toward implementation of the recommendations provided by the international organizations in the area of human rights.”

As part of the seminar, participants considered examples of reporting to CERD Committee from other countries, reviewed the recommendations to the eighth and eleventh periodic reviews of Turkmenistan for 2016.

Participants also worked on the draft text of the report reflecting on protection and promotion of the rights of ethnic, religious and language minorities, as well as children from ethnic minorities groups. Experts discussed the existing mechanisms of receiving and addressing complaints on discrimination and potential recommendations to the Office of Ombudsperson, legal reform and ratification of the international agreements.

The working group has also considered the recommendations on the rights and freedoms of stateless persons, civil society and independent judiciary, preparation of the lawyers and law enforcement officers.