On November 16, 2023, a briefing was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan on the results of the participation of the delegation of Turkmenistan in the 44th session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council.
The briefing was attended by heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, employees of diplomatic missions of foreign states and representative offices of international organizations accredited in Turkmenistan, as well as foreign and Turkmen journalists.
During the briefing, participants were familiarized with the report presented by Turkmenistan on the main directions of the country’s policy to implement its obligations in the field of human rights, as well as progressive changes that made it possible to make significant progress in resolving a number of issues identified during the previous - third review cycle in 2018 year.
As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs V.Hajiyev emphasized, the report reflects large-scale reforms and the implementation of long-term national programs aimed at strengthening the foundations of the state structure, creating a diversified economic system, solving important social problems, and increasing the level of well-being of the population of Turkmenistan.
Based on the information provided by the delegation, 77 delegations from various countries made recommendations for further improvement of the country’s policy in the humanitarian dimension. As a result of the dialogue, 228 recommendations were addressed, 146 of which were accepted for implementation, 82 were taken into account for consideration in subsequent work.
It was also noted that Turkmenistan approached the implementation of previous recommendations on a systematic basis, having developed a Roadmap for their implementation for the entire period before the current report. Over the past cycle, Turkmenistan has achieved significant progress in implementing the UPR Recommendations.
As part of the ongoing legal reform during 2018-2023 in Turkmenistan, in order to strengthen the mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights, new legislative acts were adopted, as well as additions and changes were made to existing laws.
During the reporting period, the international legal framework of Turkmenistan’s obligations in terms of ensuring human rights and freedoms was strengthened. Currently, consistent work is being carried out to join Turkmenistan to other international treaties. Monitoring of national legislation is carried out for its compliance with the provisions of international documents, study of the provisions of international documents, as well as mechanisms for accession to them.
As V.Hajiyev noted, the dialogue within the UPR was built in a cross-sectoral manner in connection with the implementation of the SDGs, in particular, the information was provided on the process of creating a national platform of Turkmenistan for the collection and dissemination of SDG data.
During the dialogue, as well as in the report itself, a lot of work is reflected in expanding the participation of women in all spheres of the socio-political life of the state.
Along with this, the delegation voiced issues of the development of civil society and the qualitative improvement of legislation and the practice of its application, achievements and efforts of the state in the field of labor relations. Expert support from the International Labor Organization was noted, based on the adopted Roadmap for cooperation with the ILO, approved for 2023.
During the briefing, it was emphasized that strengthening the democratization of society, bringing national legislation and mechanisms for its implementation in accordance with international documents in the field of human rights are a matter of paramount importance for Turkmenistan. In this direction, long-term measures are envisaged for further reform of the national system for ensuring, respecting and protecting human rights and freedoms in Turkmenistan, which indicates focused work to implement the main provisions of international conventions and national legislation relating to the protection of human rights.
In this regard, Turkmenistan’s readiness for open and constructive cooperation with interested parties was stated.
In the framework of the briefing session, the Deputy Minister, on behalf of the Turkmen side, expressed gratitude to all countries for their participation in the dialogue and addressed recommendations.
