Working Group on Turkmenistan

Coordinators: Olga Zakharova, Freedom Files and Kate Watters, Crude Accountability

Turkmenistan Civic Solidarity Group was founded in spring 2012 as a working group of an international NGO coalition, the Civic Solidarity Platform. It includes NGOs from several countries of Europe and North America as well as civic activists in Turkmenistan. The group works to advance fundamental human rights, rule of law, government accountability, environmental sustainability, and democratic transition in Turkmenistan, using research, advocacy, public education, solidarity actions, and cooperation with broader civil society and intergovernmental organisations.

The Group has founders initiated “Prove They Are Alive” campaign, which includes members of Turkmenistan Civic Solidarity Group and other organizations, working on Turkmenistan.

The international human rights campaign “Prove They Are Alive!” has been working since 2013 to protect the rights of detainees serving long-term sentences in Turkmen prisons, who since their sentence have been held incommunicado, and to halt the practice of enforced disappearances in Turkmenistan´s prisons. The campaign members include non-governmental organisations Crude Accountability (USA), Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights (Russia), Analytical Center Freedom Files (Russia), Human Rights Center “Memorial” (Russia), Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and Turkmen civic activists. The campaign acts with the support of the international Civic Solidarity Platform and Human Rights Watch and actively interacts with a broad range of human rights defenders, experts, and inter-governmental organisations, including the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and European Union.

Prove They Are Alive website: https://provetheyarealive.org