Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

UN SG urges Turkmenistan to emphasize human rights

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Turkmenistan to place a stronger emphasis on human rights. At a joint press conference with Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Ban said that he, "called on the government to fulfill all obligations under international human rights law and the many treaties to which it is a signatory." Ban arrived in Turkmenistan Thursday, his first stop on his week-long tour of Central Asia, which will also include visits to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan as a chance to discuss regional cooperation, nuclear non-proliferation, climate change, and development. Turkmenistan has been undergoing a transitional phase as it attempts to emerge from its authoritarian past as part of the Soviet Union. The country adopted a new constitution in 2008, which envisioned a new multi-party political process and provided for limits on presidential power. Political reforms in Turkmenistan come after President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, who remained in office for 21 years, died in 2006. Turkmenistan gained its independence upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The country has been cited by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights for widespread interference in judicial affairs, using torture, and suppressing political opposition, media, and civil society. The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT), which was previously called the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, is the country's ruling and only legal political party.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).