Human Rights Dissemination in Central Asia

Front matter

Anja Mihr - Cindy Wittke Editors

Human Rights Dissemination in Central Asia

Human Rights Education and Capacity Building

Preface

In December 2022, the United Nations celebrated the 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration for Human Rights Education and Learning at the Global Forum on Human Rights Education held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. For the first time in UN history, such a forum was held in Central Asia, supported by the Uzbek government and various international organizations. The Forum highlighted the ‘importance of human rights is an integral part of any training or educational program’ .!

Over the past decade, remarkable efforts have been made by international organizations, civil society, and higher education institutions in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and to some extent in Tajikistan to make human rights a central part of education. Despite the undeniable difficulties that current political regimes, (frozen) conflicts and the legacies of Soviet authoritarian leadership are posing to promote and disseminate human rights in Central Asia, non-governmental organizations in alliance with local human rights defenders, civil society and international organizations have been at the forefront in promoting, financing, and disseminating materials, conducting trainings and supporting governmental actions plans for human rights and curricula development for universities.

This edited volume pays tribute to these developments. In nine chapters, the authors provide an overview and reflect on the efforts by different actors and organizations to disseminate international human rights standards through education and awareness-raising programs in accordance with the commitments that governments in the region have made to human rights when becoming a member of the United Nations and other international organizations such as the Organizations for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The compendium starts with general overviews of human rights education and compliance in Central Asia, it makes the tensions between internationalization and nation-building visible and discusses the challenges and perspectives for the future.

! Global Forum on Human Rights Education, 5-6 December 2022, Samarkand, Uzbekistan; https://www.unodc.org/centralasia/en/global-forum-on-human-rights-education-in-uzbekistan. html (accessed January 2023).

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It also illustrates the shortcomings and domestic limits for human rights in legal education and adjudication in some countries but also highlights the modest progress made through empowerment and awareness overall for the human rights of women, children, and migrants.

This open access publication was realized thanks to the generous grant by the DAAD’s East West Dialogue program for the project “Human Rights in Central Asia: Between Nation-Building and Internationalization” (“Menschenrechte in Zentralasien: Zwischen Nationsbildung &Internationalisierung”, project- ID: 57570215) and the project “Between Conflict and Cooperation: The Politics of International Law in the Post-Soviet Space” (Zwischen Konflikt und Kooperation: Politiken des Völkerrechts im post-sowjetischen Raum” (PolVR), project-ID: 01UC1901) at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg (https://leibniz-ios.de/en/) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In addition, the OSCE Academy in Bishkek supported and co-founded the realization of the workshops in Bishkek and the research in Central Asia over the past years.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Anja Mihr Regensburg, Germany Cindy Wittke January 2023