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Freedom of Religion in Turkmenistan

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, concluded last week her trip to Turkmenistan. Although some progress has been made, there is still concern about the contents of a law from 2003 that prohibits “any activities by unregistered religious organizations.” The UN expert says that international human rights law allows for freedom of religion or belief regardless of registration status. In Turkmenistan, there is a Presidential Council for Religious Affairs, “which oversees the activities of religious organizations,” but it apparently does not inspire the confidence of all religious communities in the country. However, virtually all the people she interviewed, including unregistered religious groups, said the situation had improved since 2007.

The news report of the UN expert's findings can be found here.

 

Author

Karin Esposito

Karin Esposito is blogging on religion and politics from her base in Central Asia. Currently, she is the Project Manager for the Tajikistan Dialogue Project in Dushanbe. The Project is run through the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies with the support of PDIV of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The aim of the project is to establish practical mechanisms for co-existence and peaceful conflict resolution between Islamic and secular representatives in Tajikistan. After receiving a Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 2007, she worked in Tajikistan for the Bureau of Human Rights and later as a Visting Professor of Politics and Law at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP). Ms. Esposito also holds a Master's in Contemporary Iranian Politics (2007) from the School of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran and a Master's in International Relations (2003) from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) in Switzerland.

Areas of Focus:
Islam; Christianity; Secularism;

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