25 July 2025
Today marks five years since the death of Azimjan Askarov, a courageous human rights defender from Kyrgyzstan who dedicated his life to documenting abuses by the police and prison authorities. He died in custody on 25 July 2020, aged 69, after spending a decade behind bars, trying in vain to overturn his life sentence.
Azimjan, an ethnic Uzbek, was arrested in 2010 following ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. He was accused of complicity in the killing of a police officer, among other charges. But in 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee found that he had been arbitrarily detained, tortured, and denied a fair trial – conclusions that echoed the concerns my mandate raised several times over the years.
Azimjan’s case has held special meaning for me. I went to see him in prison and was struck by the fire in his eyes, his voice rising and falling, in his frail body, as he recounted the injustice he had suffered and the inhumane conditions he was held in. One of my very first actions as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders was to raise his case directly with the Government of Kyrgyzstan. On 5 May 2020, I sent an urgent appeal, expressing grave concern about the ongoing denial of his right to a fair trial and the severe decline in his health due to inadequate prison conditions. The Government responded on 19 June 2020, stating that his condition was “satisfactory” and that he did not qualify for medical release. He died just a month later.
At the time, I said that his death was a stain on the human rights record of the Government of Kyrgyzstan, and I have seen nothing since to change my mind. Five years on, I remain deeply disheartened by reports that the circumstances surrounding his death have still not been effectively and impartially investigated and that, despite the clear findings of the UN Human Rights Committee, Azimjan has not been rehabilitated, and his family has yet to receive compensation.
Azimjan was both a passionate human rights defender and a talented artist. Today, my team and I put up some of his artwork in the cities where we work. It’s a small and personal way for us to remember him and to express our belief that, although his life was cut short, his art and legacy continue and with them, his spirit lives on.
