Assessment of Systemic Violations Against Pamiri Indigenous Minority in Tajikistan. Joint Submission to the UN HRC UPR of Tajikistan

This joint submission by ADC Memorial and the Pamiri Diaspora Human Rights Activists evaluates Tajikistan’s implementation of recommendations from the 3rd UPR cycle and documents ongoing, severe human rights violations, particularly affecting the Pamiri indigenous minorities in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO/VMKB). Despite accepting recommendations on torture prevention, freedom of expression, minority rights, and protection of human rights defenders, Tajikistan has failed to implement them in practice.

Since the 2021–2022 protests in GBAO, authorities have intensified repression through arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, closed unfair trials, and transnational repression. At least 222 Pamiris remain imprisoned, including human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, religious leaders, and civic activists. Courts have disproportionately imposed life sentences on Pamiris, and deaths in custody have increased sharply.

Civic space has collapsed. Independent media outlets have been shut down, Pamiri journalists have been imprisoned following closed trials, and Pamiri cultural and news platforms have been banned as “extremist.” Internet shutdowns, digital surveillance, and reprisals against civil society actors have become routine, especially in GBAO.

Torture and illtreatment are systematic. Documented deaths in custody—including those of Bogsho Imatshoev, Kulmamad Pallaev, Muzaffar Davlatmirov, Aslan Gulobov, Eronsho Mamadrahimov, and Sherik Karamkhudoev—illustrate a pattern of medical neglect, punitive treatment, and denial of due process.

The Pamiri indigenous minorities faces systemic discrimination, including disproportionate sentencing, targeted arrests, cultural suppression, and forced displacement. Approximately 50,000 Pamiris—one quarter of the region’s population—have fled GBAO since 2022 due to escalating repression.

Tajikistan has not implemented recommendations to prevent enforced disappearances or end reprisals. Authorities continue to target relatives of activists abroad, using detention and torture as leverage to coerce return or silence. The submission calls on Tajikistan to implement UPR and treatybody recommendations, release arbitrarily detained Pamiris, and end collective punishment of the Pamiri population.