TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — Russia has extradited a Kazakh businessman to Astana, where he is wanted on financial-fraud charges that his lawyers say are untrue, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
TCA
DUSHANBE (TCA) — Investing in early childhood development is critical to boosting Tajikistan’s human capital and future labor force productivity, said experts at an international workshop in Dushanbe on March 14. With the youngest and fastest growing population in Central Asia, it is important for Tajikistan to ensure that all children are well-nourished and intellectually stimulated, both at home and at school, so they can become productive adults in an increasingly competitive and integrated global economy, the World Bank reported.
TCA
KABUL (TCA) — The University of Central Asia (UCA) celebrated the achievements of 22 Afghan civil servants who were awarded an Executive Masters in Economic Policy (EMEP) at a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan on 10 March. Over 40% of graduates are women. The EMEP programme was delivered by the UCA’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA), based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, which is part of the Graduate School of Development.
TCA
ASHGABAT (TCA) — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan on March 14 inaugurated and officially opened Hil Standart’s Microbiology Laboratory, the first private sector food safety laboratory in Turkmenistan, the US Embassy in Ashgabat said in a press release.
TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — The European Parliament on March 14 adopted a resolution urging Kazakhstan to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The European Parliament called on the Kazakhstan authorities to “put an end to all forms of political repression, since the number of political prisoners in Kazakhstan has increased, and the right to freedom of association remains largely restricted in the country”. Taking note that last year the Kazakh authorities banned the “peaceful opposition movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan,” European Parliament members urged the government to end such actions.
They also called on the government of Kazakhstan to repeal its Criminal Code provisions on prohibiting ‘spreading information that is known to be false’, since they are used to charge and imprison civil society activists and journalists. The European Parliament members finally demanded an end to the Kazakh government’s harassment of and reprisals against journalists critical of the government and to the blocking of access to information both online and offline.
The European Parliament’s resolution welcomes the early release from jail of opposition politician Vladimir Kozlov in 2016 and other political prisoners, but insists that “all activists and political prisoners currently in jail” should be fully rehabilitated and immediately released, RFE/RL reported.
The resolution demands that Kazakh authorities end their crackdown on independent labor unions and lift restrictions on their activities.
“All forms of arbitrary detention, reprisals and harassment against human rights activists, civil society organizations, and political opposition movement” should stop, it adds.
The European Parliament also asked the EU diplomatic service to “proactively engage in trial observation missions, in order to monitor politically sensitive trials and politically motivated prosecutions and verify that the right to a fair trial applies to all.”
TCA
KABUL (TCA) — A senior Afghan official accused the U.S. special envoy to his country, Zalmay Khalilzad, of “delegitimizing” the Kabul government by excluding it from peace negotiations with the Taliban and acting like a “viceroy,” RFE/RL reported.
