Elena Sorokina On October 3, 2024, Kate Watters, Executive Director of Crude Accountability, delivered a powerful intervention during the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference plenary on the Rule of Law.
In her speech, Kate Watters addressed the grave human rights abuses in Turkmenistan, specifically enforced disappearances. The Prove They Are Alive! campaign has documented that 36 individuals, who have served their full sentences, remain imprisoned without release. Some of these individuals have been held without contact, legal representation, or adequate medical care for over 20 years. Additionally, 29 individuals have died in prison, with many families left in the dark about their loved ones’ fate, unable to bury them.
The intervention also highlighted the escalating repression in Azerbaijan, where 319 political prisoners are currently arbitrarily detained, many of whom have endured torture and mistreatment while in custody.
Watch the recording or read the transcript of the intervention below.
Transcript: My name is Kate Watters, and I am the executive director of Crude Accountability.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before this distinguished group; it is an honor to be here.
In Turkmenistan, torture is a reality for political prisoners and for those who are forcibly disappeared in the country’s prison system. According to the Prove campaign, of which Crude Accountability is a founding member, there are 162 cases of enforced disappearances in Turkmenistan, although we believe the number is likely much higher.
This morning, I want to bring your attention to two matters related to the disappeared, which compound the torture that these individuals and their families endure.
According to information of the Prove They are Alive campaign, 36 individuals who are forcibly disappeared in Turkmenistan have served their full terms but have not been released by the government of Turkmenistan. Some of these people have been behind bars without access to proper medical care or legal representation for over twenty years. Their families have not heard from them, do not know where they are, or even if they are alive. Such torture is unimaginable and these individuals must be immediately and unconditionally released.
Additionally, the campaign has information that 29 of the disappeared have died in prison. These are cases for which we have official data, not cases of rumor or unsubstantiated information. In many of these cases, the body was not returned to the family. Again, unspeakable torture for the disappeared and for their loved ones.
Since 2003, Crude Accountability also works across the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan, in Azerbaijan, which is undergoing an unprecedented crackdown on civil society about which we heard yesterday during the session on freedom of expression. There are currently 319 political prisoners arbitrarily detained or imprisoned in Azerbaijan, and many of them suffered torture during their arrest and while in pre-trial detention.
Azerbaijan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and its own constitution and criminal code prohibit the use of torture, yet, according to the US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Azerbaijan, “multiple credible allegations of torture and other abuses continued. Most mistreatment took place while detainees were in police custody, where authorities reportedly used abusive methods to coerce confessions.” These statements correspond to information that Crude Accountability has received about those arbitrarily detained during the past year regarding unsanitary conditions, beatings, inadequate ventilation, insufficient access to medical care, cramped, overcrowded conditions, and being denied the opportunity for physical exercise.
In the case of Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, who is being denied critically necessary medical treatment, his health and well-being are seriously compromised, causing great concern to his loved ones.
Access to prisons by international observers, including representatives of OSCE participating states, must include prisons known for holding political prisoners.
We urge the OSCE participating states to demand that the practice of torture, including enforced disappearances, be immediately stopped, and that political prisoners, including the disappeared, be immediately and unconditionally released.
Thank you very much.