DUSHANBE, December 11, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan still has problems with observance of human rights despite a certain progress made in this direction, Ms. Nargis Zokirova, the chairperson of the Republican Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law (BHR), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to her, cases of violation of human rights are occurring in activity of law enforcement agencies; law enforcement authorities are continuing to use beating to extort confessions.  “One of main reasons of this is a poor human rights awareness among law enforcement officers,” said Zokirova, “Access of civil society to penitentiary facilities is restricted, while international organizations such as International Committee for red Cross (ICRC) do not yet have access to these facilities.”

There are also instances, when evicted persons are not provided with appropriate dwelling or commensurate compensations, she said.

Besides, there are serious problems with providing free legal advice in Tajikistan.  “The practice of providing free legal advice to vulnerable is not fulfilled properly, though the government ensures the provision of free legal advice to those who cannot afford to pay lawyer’s services,” said Zokirova, “There is no a special budget for paying legal assistance provided by lawyers to vulnerable people, and therefore, lawyer receive payment for such kind of services very seldom.  That is why citizens of our country do not receive such kind of assistance properly.”

Another serious problem is use of child’s labor in cotton fields, which is the gross violation of human right, she added.