Following a wave of antigovernment protests across Kazakhstan earlier this month, activists from the volatile city of Zhanaozen say authorities are taking extraordinary measures to prevent them from attending another rally.
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Malokhat Eshankulova, an independent journalist from Uzbekistan, was unable to fly to Warsaw, where the OSCE Human Rights Conference began today.
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Turkmen labor rights activist Gaspar Matalaev walked free from prison on September 6, having served a spurious three-year sentence in full. He is now back home with his family.
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On Sunday September 1 schoolteachers from Turkmenabat in northeast Turkmenistan were sent to pick cotton. They assembled outside their schools at 6.30 in the morning, having received the instructions from the deputy principals on Friday evening (turkmen.news has screenshots of the messages).
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This Roadmap sets forth a comprehensive vision to end forced labor in the cotton industry and ensure that reforms are fundamental and sustainable. Its purpose is to support the historic process of reform that is underway but incomplete to eliminate and prevent forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton sector.
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Men in white fur caps proudly ride horses across the steppe, rows of modern machinery glisten, Barbie-pink flamingos strut before clear blue skies and a white yacht cuts through the turquoise waters of the Caspian Sea.
These are idyllic scenes from a one-minute video promoting the inaugural Caspian Economic Forum, which between August 11 and 12 will see heads of state from Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan descend on Awaza, a new resort town that has been touted by Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry as the country’s Las Vegas
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym Tokayev issued a decree on the evening of August 9th pardoning trade union leader Erlan Baltabay, leader of the Fuel and Energy Workers’ Union and vice-president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (KNPRK), from custody. Baltabay was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on July 17, 2019, on embezzlement charges that the international labor movement condemned as being politically motivated. His sentence also included a prohibition on trade union activities for an additional seven years after his jail term
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The economic crisis in Turkmenistan, caused by the fall in hard currency revenue from gas sales, is forcing residents of the “Motherland of Prosperity” — this is the country’s slogan for 2019 — to keep finding new ways to earn money. Turkmen.news has already written about Turkmen citizens travelling abroad as shuttle traders. Our fellow countrymen have taken crockery and household items to Zhanaozen (Kazakhstan), domestic appliances to Urgench (Uzbekistan), and foodstuffs to Istanbul, while huge bags of Turkmen textiles caused a malfunction in the baggage system at Almaty airport.
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IndustriALL Global Union is calling for the immediate release of Kazakh trade union leader, Erlan Baltabay, after he was sentenced to seven years in prison by a Kazakh court on 17 July.
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The ITUC has harshly condemned the sentencing of Kazakhstan trade union leader Erlan Baltabay. Efforts to improve freedom of association for working people are once again jeopardised; but the country’s new leadership could still intervene.
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