Ashgabat, 21 September 2020: The United Nations Development Programme and the Institute of State, Law and Democracy of Turkmenistan jointly delivered a presentation on the results of assessment of implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan 2016-2020 (NHRAP) in Turkmenistan. The assessment was conducted by Ms. Irina Liczek, international expert on human rights, in summer 2020.

In online mode, Ms. Natia Natsvlishvili, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. and Mr. Batyr Orazov, Deputy Director of the Institute of State, Law and Democracy of Turkmenistan welcomed the participants and confirmed the joint commitment towards continued cooperation between the UNDP and the Government of Turkmenistan.

“It is clear that NHRAP can benefit both the government and the people living in Turkmenistan and in this respect availability of quantitative and qualitative data that is collected long-term will benefit in assessing the impact of this endeavor,” emphasized Ms. Irina Liczek, UNDP International expert.

The members of the Working Group of the Inter-Agency Commission on human rights and humanitarian law jointly with UN agencies discussed the achievements, challenges and lessons learned of the National Human Rights Action Plan during the first four years of its implementation. Participants of the discussion addressed contributions of the NHRAP to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recommendations towards the development of a new Plan for 2021-2025.

Turkmenistan adopted the first National Human Rights Action Plan on January 15, 2016. NHRAP was developed based on the 183 accepted recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review in 2012. The Action Plan is comprehensive five-year (2016-2020) document, which is owned by the Government of Turkmenistan.

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The assessment of the NHRAP was conducted in the framework of the joint project between UNDP and the Institute of State, Law and Democracy of Turkmenistan “Assistance in implementation of the NHRAP 2016-2020”.