For many years now, Tajikistan’s government has been ruling the country as it wishes and ignoring all criticism of the many rights violations being committed in Tajikistan.
On April 10, two NGOs — the Ukrainian Fund of International Volunteers and Freedom for Eurasia — and the banned Tajik opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) filed a complaint with the international Criminal Court (ICC).
The complaint accuses Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his government of committing crimes against humanity.
IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri said, “We hope the (ICC), (after considering) our complaint, will begin procedures for opening a criminal case and arresting the perpetrators, including the top leadership of Tajikistan.”
A Big Problem That’s Getting Worse
Evidence provided in the complaint covers the period from 2002 to 2024, but events only in the last few years tell the story of the impunity with which Tajik authorities have acted toward their citizens inside and outside Tajikistan.
In May 2022, the Tajik government responded to peaceful protests in eastern Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) by implementing a counter-terrorism operation that saw dozens, at least, of locals killed, and hundreds detained.
Tajik authorities arrested people who were not involved in the protests: lawyers, activists, artists, and journalists. More than a dozen Pamiris were detained in Russia and forcibly deported back to Tajikistan where they were immediately detained and soon after, convicted and imprisoned.
GBAO is home to the Pamiris, a group of more than 200,000 who have been living in the remote Pamir Mountains for centuries. They are Shiite Muslims, not Sunnis as most ethnic Tajiks are. Pamiris have their own languages and a unique culture.
GBAO has been a restive area since Tajikistan became independent in late 1991, mainly because the Pamiris prefer to govern their territory according to their own age-old customs and have been resistant to the government’s attempts to exert control over the region.
Less than three years since the counter-terrorism operation, Pamiri culture is in danger of disappearing. Pamiris are followers of the Aga Khan. During more than 30 years of Tajikistan’s independence, the recently deceased Aga Khan IV Prince Karim spent more than $1 billion on projects in GBAO, which is the poorest region in Tajikistan.
Since 2022, the government has seized or is currently trying to seize nearly everything the Aga Khan Development Network built or established in GBAO. The hotels, schools, including the University of Central Asia in the GBAO capital Khorog, a medical center, the park in Khorog, and other objects financed by the Aga Khan are all coming under state control. Locals are forbidden from having portraits of the Aga Khan in their homes.
Rahmon is preparing his eldest son, Rustam Emomali, to become Tajikistan’s next president. In advance of the widely-expected transfer of power, Rahmon has been clearing away any potential opposition.
The IRPT was banned and declared by a Tajik court to be an extremist group a decade ago, despite the party having been part of the government during the previous 18 years. The IPRT was part of a coalition of groups that fought against the government during Tajikistan’s 1992-1997 civil war.
Tajik authorities alleged a coup attempt by Tajikistan by the country’s deputy defense minister in September 2015 was connected to the IRPT. The party had already had its registration canceled and following the reported failed coup attempt, a court banned the IRPT’s activities and officially branded it an extremist group.
Fourteen top IRPT members who were in Tajikistan were arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. One of those 14, Muhammadali Fayzmuhammad, died in prison in July 2024 at age 65.
No Hope for a Fair Trial
The trials of the IRPT were held behind closed doors, which has become the norm in Tajikistan. The government has justified these closed-door trials, saying that state secrets are being revealed as part of the proceedings.
The trials of the GBAO defendants, and at the start of 2025, the trials of eight people — former government officials and one rights lawyer, and the trial the lawyer’s niece, a journalist who reported on Tajik citizens’ attitude toward China — were also conducted behind closed doors. All were convicted.
Not guilty verdicts are rare in Tajikistan. A report in June 2022 said in more than 10,000 cases heard by Tajik courts in 2021, there were only 10 acquittals. In July 2022, the Chairman of Tajikistan’s Supreme Court Shermukhammad Shohiyon said in the first six months of the year there were 5,508 court cases and no acquittals.
Tajikistan has consistently ranked near the bottom in Freedom House’s annual Nations in Transit reports and Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Indexes.
Will the ICC Be Different?
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued several opinions in recent years that found violations in the detentions and convictions of people in Tajikistan, and called on Tajik authorities to immediately release these people. The Tajik government has not responded to any of the Working Group’s decisions.
Similarly, Tajik authorities ignore criticisms from international rights groups and individual governments about rights abuses.
IRPT leader Kabiri said the lawyers involved in preparing to complaint to the ICC spent four years collecting evidence.
Freedom for Eurasia said the acts documented in the complaint fall under several categories of crimes against humanity, including murders and extrajudicial executions, enslavement in penal institutions, torture, disappearances, persecution for political or religious reasons, and arbitrary detentions without a fair trial.
Freedom for Eurasia also noted “Tajikistan’s status as a Rome Statute signatory means the ICC has clear jurisdiction… ” and concluded its statement by saying, “In the face of the total absence of domestic remedies, the international route is the only hope for justice for the victims (in Tajikistan).”
