Japan: Urge Rights Reforms in Turkmenistan

Turkmen President’s Visit Key Opportunity to Press for Improvements

Human Rights Watch, December 15, 2009

While the Turkmen president tours Japan, hundreds of students are effectively held prisoner in their own country, arbitrarily deprived of education of their choice. Japan’s leaders should press the Turkmen president to lift these outrageous restrictions and to take other immediate steps to remedy abuses.

Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director

(Tokyo) – The Japanese government should use the upcoming state visit by the Turkmen president to raise concerns about the appalling human rights situation in Turkmenistan and to press for concrete improvements, Human Rights Watch said today. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is scheduled to begin a three-day visit to Japan on December 16, 2009, during which he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Emperor Akihito.

Continues >>

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Has the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Made Humanity Better Off?
• Colombia: Trusted American Ally?

Tags: President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmen government and repression, Turkmen prisons, Turkmenistan