The office of Tajikistan’s Human Rights Ombudsman has published its first annual report since being formed in May 2009.
Although it is heartening that both the office and the report exist, Ombudsman Safarali Gulomov appears the first to admit he may not have been up to the job. "We did not even know what to begin with," he said, speaking of the 300-page report at its presentation on May 19.
According to Asia-Plus, the ombudsman seems to have placed much of his emphasis on children's issues. The report states that although children and their mothers are due special state protection under the law, the real situation leaves "much to be desired."
Areas singled out for concern are the nonpayment of child support (presumably by errant fathers), abuse at the hands of parents, and the growing number of street children.
Perhaps the most pressing question addressed in the report is the use of children as cheap, and illegal, labor.
Asia-Plus does not dwell on the details and the Human Rights Ombudsman's website is still under construction, so we do not know precisely how deep this state-sponsored body looks into the issue of child labor. Since so many children are employed in cotton fields as extra hands in the desperate effort by loan-crippled farmers to produce enough goods, it is hard to believe the issue is thoroughly examined.
Indeed, Tajik farmers routinely complain that they are pressured by the authorities into sowing lucrative, but risky, cotton crops, instead of the less labor-intensive fruit and vegetables they would favor.
Another sore topic the ombudsman studied is the forced marriage of underage girls, who are pulled out of school after the ninth grade by their parents.
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