On September 7, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (CCPR) published a significant decision concerning Tajikistan’s discriminatory treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In a ruling made on July 7, 2022, regarding the case of Adyrkhayev v. Tajikistan, the CCPR decided in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This case dealt with Tajikistan’s refusal to grant Jehovah’s Witnesses legal recognition and the subsequent ban on their activities.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have been active in Tajikistan for more than 50 years. The Religious Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses (RAJW) was legally registered in 1994. However, on October 11, 2007, the Ministry of Culture withdrew the registration and banned the worship of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The government claimed that the ministry activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, their conscientious objection to military service, and their belief that they have the true religion were extremist. Repeated efforts to reregister the RAJW have been rejected.

In their recent ruling, the CCPR concluded that Tajikistan’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses is unlawful. It stated that “none of the reasons” given by Tajikistan to justify the decision to ban the RAJW and refuse its reregistration are valid.

The CCPR also noted that the Tajik government’s refusal to reregister the RAJW led to “arrests, detentions, interrogations, searches, beatings, seizures of religious materials, as well as a deportation of [one of] Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Because of this mistreatment, the CCPR determined that the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were violated.

The CCPR directed Tajikistan to reconsider the reregistration application of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to provide financial compensation to those whose rights have been violated. The Tajik government was also told that it is “under an obligation to take all steps necessary to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future.”

The CCPR’s decision could affect the case of 71-year-old Brother Shamil Khakimov, who has been in prison since February 2019 for peacefully practicing his faith. The Tajik authorities’ only legal basis for arresting and imprisoning him is the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It is hoped that the CCPR’s decision will lead the way to freedom of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Tajikistan. We pray Jehovah’s blessing on the continuing efforts to ‘defend and legally establish the good news.’—Philippians 1:7.