Start date: 2023
Areas of expertise: Public International Law, Human Rights, Law Applicable to Counterterrorism, Rule of Law, Criminal Procedure
Highlights: 1 project

Overview

Immediately after its 1991 independence, Tajikistan devolved into civil war, with government and opposition parties vying for state power in the wake of controversial election results. Ravaging the country for half a decade, the civil war culminated in a 1997 UN-sponsored armistice agreement, which finally brought an end to the conflict through promise of shared power.

In recent years, the Tajik state has garnered attention for its efforts in the related field of countering terrorism, as it has worked to respond to a perceived increase in the threat of terrorism and violent extremism. According to officially reported data, approximately 2,000 Tajik citizens left the country to join the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria between the years of 2014 and 2019. In 2015, Tajikistan offered amnesty to voluntary returnees who renounce their ties, and in 2019, Tajikistan began a repatriation program for children in Iraq whose mothers had been imprisoned for their ties to IS. Since 2018, the government of Tajikistan and the UN have engaged in counterterrorism cooperation efforts in Central Asia under the auspices of the Dushanbe Process, which has seen the convening of three high-level international conferences in Dushanbe and the adoption of three related declarations – now also official documents of the UN General Assembly.

Current projects in Tajikistan