Tajikistan

Tajikistan’s independence in 1991 was quickly followed by descent into a protracted civil war when government and opposition parties vied for power after a controversial election. After half a decade of devastating turmoil, the civil war culminated in a UN-brokered armistice agreement in 1997 which brought an end to the conflict through the promise of power-sharing.

In recent years, the Tajik state has garnered attention for its counterterrorism efforts as it sought to tackle the growing threats of terrorism and violent extremism. According to official data, approximately 2,000 Tajik citizens had left the country to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria between the years of 2014 and 2019. In 2015, Tajikistan offered an amnesty to voluntary returnees who renounced their ties and, in 2019, a repatriation program was initiated to retrieve children whose mothers had been imprisoned for their ties to IS in Iraq. 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 included three high-level international conferences in the Tajik capital and the adoption of three declarations – now also official documents of the UN General Assembly.

• Prosecution, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration of Returning Foreign Fighters and their Families