UN Authority Figures

UN Economic and Social Council Vice-President: Tajikistan

Fear plays an important role in keeping the population in check. Protests are not tolerated. The regime has blocked opposition websites and arrested, assassinated and forced opposition activists into exile and targeted them abroad. Photo: Activists who were pursued by the government of Tajikistan.
Source: World Politics Review, February 18, 2016


Mission of the Economic and Social Council: "The Economic and Social Council is at the heart of the United Nations system to advance the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. It is the central platform for fostering debate and innovative thinking, forging consensus on ways forward, and coordinating efforts to achieve internationally agreed goals." (ECOSOC website, "About Us")

Term of office: 2018-2020 (Vice-President: 2018)

Tajikistan's Record on "social development" and "fostering debate":
"Tajikistan is an authoritarian state dominated politically by President Emomali Rahmon and his supporters... The most significant human rights problems included citizens' inability to change their government through free and fair elections; torture and abuse of detainees and other persons by security forces; repression, increased harassment, and incarceration of civil society and political activists; and restrictions on freedoms of expression, media, and the free flow of information, including through the repeated blockage of several independent news and social networking websites... The authorities continued to curb freedom of speech through detentions, prosecutions, the threat of heavy fines, the passage of strict and overreaching slander legislation, and the forced closure of media outlets. By law a person may be imprisoned for as long as five years for insulting the president. Journalists continued to face harassment and intimidation by government officials."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2016, Tajikistan)