Elena Sorokina On October 10th, Crude Accountability delivered its remarks at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2023, one of the largest human rights conferences in the region.
During the intervention at the plenary session on the prevention and eradication of torture, Crude Accountability director Kate Watters focused on Enforced disappearances throughout the OSCE region, particularly in conflict zones and countries or regions with authoritarian and repressive regimes, such as, for example, Turkmenistan.
According to the Prove They Are Alive! campaign, there are over 162 cases of enforced disappearances in the country. Also among the disappeared are at least 32 individuals who have served their full terms, but continue to be disappeared in the Turkmen prison system. Some of them continue to be disappeared years after completing their sentences. Where are these people, and why have they not been released?
We urge OSCE participating States to demand that enforced disappearances be stopped as a practice throughout the region, and, that those forcibly disappeared individuals who have served their full terms be immediately and unconditionally released to their families.
The intervention recording and full transcript are provided below.
Kate Watters: Thank you, madam moderator.
My name is Kate Watters, I am the executive director of Crude Accountability, and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak here this morning.
Enforced disappearances is a serious human rights violation throughout the OSCE region, particularly in conflict zones and countries or regions with authoritarian and repressive regimes. In conflict zones, enforced disappearances is often used by occupying or invading armies to intimidate civilians as well as soldiers. Throughout the OSCE region, repressive regimes also use enforced disappearances to intimidate and scare populations into behaving in a way that does not challenge the regime for fear of disappearing into opaque and brutal prison systems.
Among conflict zones where enforced disappearances are historically or currently occurring are the Balkans, Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.
Areas in the OSCE in which enforced disappearances are used as a tool of intimidation by the regime include Belarus and Turkmenistan. Of course, in conflict zones, enforced disappearances also serve to intimidate and threaten the population.
Turkmenistan, which has not seen violent conflict in its history as an independent nation, is a country in which enforced disappearance is used by the government to control the population. According to the Prove They Are Alive! campaign, there are over 162 cases of enforced disappearances in the country.
Among the disappeared are prominent government officials and diplomats, including those who served in this institution—namely Batyr Berdyev, who has been disappeared in Turkmenistan’s prison system since 2003.
Also among the disappeared are at least 32 individuals who have served their full terms, but continue to be disappeared in the Turkmen prison system. Some of them continue to be disappeared years after completing their sentences. Where are these people, and why have they not been released?
The failure of the Turkmen government to release these individuals and to tell their families about their whereabouts and condition amounts to torture—not only for the disappeared, but also for their loved ones.
In accordance with OSCE decision 7/20, which was adopted in 2020, “OSCE participating States have explicitly and unequivocally pledged to uphold the absolute prohibition of torture.”
In this context, the Prove They Are Alive! campaign urges participating States to uphold this decision and demand that enforced disappearances be stopped as a practice throughout the region, and, that those forcibly disappeared individuals who have served their full terms be immediately and unconditionally released to their families.