Britain as a ‘force for good’ in Central Asia Working Group: Tajikistan paper

The overall amount of UK aid in Tajikistan, despite a brief uptick in the 2022/23 financial year, is due to decrease to a quarter of its 2019/20 levels (from £4 million to £1 million) by 2023/24, which may in turn further restrict British influence on events.7 Tajikistan does not seem to be top of the priority list in Central Asia for the UK to convert the previous EU Partnership and Cooperation A. [...] On the basis of persistent human rights abuses the UK should seek to add Tajikistan to its list of Human Rights Priority Countries, given that (as set out below) its performance on human rights is significantly worse than a number of the countries currently on the list.9 Corruption and the Economy The President, his family and close associates have almost total control of the patronage networks an. [...] It is important for the FCDO to ensure its colleagues in the Home Office are fully-briefed about the complexities of the situation in Tajikistan and the need to heavily scrutinise requests through Interpol that originate in Dushanbe to ensure they are not targeting peaceful opponents. [...] Civil Society In the post-Civil War period, Tajikistan’s civil society became a focus of international attention with a range of both international NGOs and donor support to local initiatives working to try and rebuild the country and address its challenges in the aftermath of the civil war. [...] Media Freedom29 In line with its Executive Group role in the Media Freedom Coalition the UK Government and its partners need to apply pressure in the most effective ways possible to protect the ability of the ASIA-Plus News Agency, the only broadly independent local outlet, to continue to operate.30 Their website has been blocked by the Government for much of the last two years and they were force.