UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Vice-President: Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan remains highly repressive, ans torture is widespread in its prisons.
Source: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, December 5, 2015

Mission of the General Assembly:
"13. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:
    a. promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification; b. promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." ("UN Charter")

Term of office: 2016-2017

Turkmenistan's Record on "the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion":
"Although the constitution declares Turkmenistan to be a secular democracy and a presidential republic, the country has an authoritarian government controlled by the president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his inner circle...The most important human rights problems were arbitrary arrest; torture; disregard for civil liberties, including restrictions on freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and movement; and citizens' inability to change the government through free and fair elections. Other continuing human rights problems included denial of due process and fair trial; arbitrary interference with privacy, home, and correspondence; discrimination and violence against women; trafficking in persons; and restrictions on the free association of workers. Officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government acted with impunity. There were no reported prosecutions of government officials for human rights abuses... security officials tortured and beat criminal suspects, prisoners, and individuals deemed critical of the government to extract confessions and as a form of punishment... [F]orms of torture included pulling the genitals with pliers, electric shocks, and beatings with chair legs and plastic bottles filled with water..." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2015, Turkmenistan)

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