DUSHANBE, January 16, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- The appeals court of the Sughd regional court has upheld the Khujand city court’s verdict against the Amparo rights group, the group chairperson, Ms. Dilrabo Samadova, told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.

“We asked them to give us time to remove shortcomings revealed in our activities.  We said that our problem had been raised at both the national and international levels and the closure of the human rights organization will damage Tajikistan’s but all that was useless,” Ms. Samadova said.

She denounced the ruling and vowed to appeal to the appeals court of the Supreme Court.  “We will go through all national instances and in the case of necessity we will appeal to international judicial bodies,” the Amparo chairperson added.

We will recall that the Khujand city court ruled to shut down the Amparo rights group on October 24, 2012, saying that the group was operating without a proper license.

The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against Amparo on June 29, 2012, saying it failed to timely show its address change at the ministry.        

Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the Tajik authorities for shutting down the Amparo rights group.  Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, issued a statement on October 25 calling the decision politically motivated.

“A court’s decision on October 24, 2012 to close the human rights organization, Amparo, in Tajikistan is a serious blow to the country’s civil society and should be reconsidered in line with Tajikistan’s international obligations to uphold the freedom of association,” the statement said.  “The group, the Association of Young Lawyers “Amparo,” investigates torture and serves as an advocate for the rights of army conscripts and other vulnerable groups.  The rights group was shut down on what appear to be minor charges.”

Mr. Williamson also called the court’s decision “a transparent attempt to silence voices working on critically important issues such as torture and the rights of military recruits and a major step backward for human rights in Tajikistan.”

Amparo, whose members include more than 40 rights activists, journalists, and educators, was founded in 2005 by a group of young lawyers who sought to empower youth with human rights education.  Amparo actively investigates and monitors the rights of Tajik army recruits, the poor, orphans, and the disabled, among other vulnerable social groups.

For several years the group has been an active member of the Coalition against Torture, which brings together several leading Tajik civil society organizations that collect and report on torture allegations from across the country and jointly encourage the government to meet its international commitments to end the practice.