Tag Archives: law

Uzbekistan banns foreign songs

JULY 4 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have banned local singers from covering foreign songs, the US-funded RFE/RL report by quoting government officials, possibly an attempt to exert more control over Uzbek culture. Last month, the Uzbek authorities also ruled that musicians needed to ask for permission before posting their music videos online. The apparent need to exert more control and authority over Uzbek culture contrasts with a more relaxed stance towards business under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kazakhstan strips IS fighters of citizenship

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JUNE 22 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s upper house of parliament approved a bill that will strip people accused of fighting for the extremist IS group in Syria and Iraq of their citizenship. The Kazakh authorities are increasingly worried about returnees from Syria and Iraq spreading radical ideology and fighting techniques if, and when, they move back to Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Georgia starts processing law to ban foreigners from owning land

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TBILISI, JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament started processing a law that will forbid foreigners from owning farmland, despite warnings from experts that the ban will stunt the growth of the agriculture sector.

The Georgian Dream government dominates parliament and has said that it is bringing in the law because of the pressure on farmland, although opponents have said that its main aim is to roll back another key policy of former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Levan Davitashvili, the minister of agriculture, said that under the new legislation foreigners would only be allowed to own land if they inherited it, if they married into it or if they already had a permanent residence or an investment permit.

“Land is a particularly limited resource and, with the population growth, land resources are becoming more significant and valuable,” media quoted him as saying. “It is crucial that agricultural land has to be for Georgian citizens and they have to have the property rights.”

When he was in power between 2003 and 2013, Mr Saakahvili had courted Afrikaans to move to Georgia from South Africa, promising them access to good farmland. He followed this up with campaigns to persuade Indian farmers to also move to Georgia too. Essentially he wanted the expertise and investment potential the foreign farmers would bring.

But alongside the expertise, the farmers from South Africa and India generated resentment and frustration from locals, something that the Georgian Dream picked up on and campaigned to change.

After winning a majority of MPs in Parliament in 2012, the Georgian Dream brought in a moratorium to suspend the sale of farmland to foreigners. This moratorium was declared unconstitutional in Dec. 2014 and revoked.

Earlier this month, with the Georgian Dream now dominating Parliament, constitutional amendments were passed banning land sales to foreigners. The new law being discussed, though, will come into play before constitutional amendments.

Phatima Mamardashvili, head of the Agricultural Policy Research Centre, said the ban was negative.

“Our agriculture is so unproductive. We should welcome any investment,” she told The Bulletin. “Foreign investor bring knowledge, capital, new technology. These new limitations are negative. foreign investment flow will be reduced. Georgia will be a less attractive market.”

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Turkmen Pres. Berdymukhamedov cuts subsidies to save money

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JUNE 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to scrap all subsidies on household utilities, immediately drawing accusations that he was losing control of the economy.

In a surprise statement, the presidential press service said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered parliament to cut the Soviet-era subsidies because they were “ineffective”.

Quoting official news sources, news agencies said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered his government to cancel all subsidies except “for the most needy”.

Turkmenistan’s economy has been strained for the past three years, ever since energy prices started to collapse, and commentators said that a lack of funds and not any root and branch change of economic strategy was behind the move.

Turkmenistan holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves. The vast majority of its foreign earnings come from selling this gas, mainly to China. The drop in gas prices has hit this income stream hard and although Mr Berdymukhamedov has never admitted as such, it has dented the economy. In 2015, the Turkmen currency was devalued by a third.

At the start of this year, Turkmenistan accused Iran of not settling a debt that it said it was still and in the last few months Mr Berdymukhamedov has embarked on a series cabinet reshuffles and sackings that analysts said hinted at panic and frustration over the economic turmoil.

Under Mr Berdymukhamedov, state subsidies in Turkmenistan have gradually been eroded. The subsidies have their roots in the Soviet Union which made a point of giving electricity, heating and water virtually away for free.

Turkmenistan is trying to extend its energy customer base to India and Pakistan via the so-called TAPI pipeline, and also to negotiate a way to sell gas to Europe via the South Caucasus energy corridor.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Georgia to ban foreign farm ownership

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgia prepared to ban foreigners from owning agricultural land, another marker in a long-running debate over just how much of Georgia’s farmland to allow foreigners to buy. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili had promoted Georgia as a place for foreigners to set up farms, encouraging both South Africans and Indians to move to Georgia until a popular backlash forced him to abandon the policy. Now, media reports that the ruling Georgian Dream coalition government is preparing to tweak the constitution to limit foreign ownership.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Georgia to ban smoking, tighten cigarette packaging from 2018

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TBILISI, MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Tough new smoking laws will bring Georgian legislation in line with guidelines included in a trade and association agreement that Georgia signed with the EU this year, said Georgia’s public ombudsman.

The bill, approved by parliament on May 17, will impose tighter rules on cigarette packaging and advertising, as well as a blanket ban on smoking inside public buildings.

Georgia has been slower than its neighbours in following a global trend to clampdown on smoking, partially because restrictions are so unpopular among Georgia’s heavy- smoking population. The World Health Organisation said more than half of all Georgian men smoke and between 9,000 to 11,000 die from smoking-related diseases each year.

Georgia’s ombudsman praised the new regulations as a step towards improving public health and said it “ brought the applicable tobacco legislation in line with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the recommendations and the directives of the Georgia-EU Association Agreement”.

Smoking in Georgia is currently banned only in medical facilities, educational institutions and public transport. Most bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants allow smoking.

Dato Zaaliasvhili, the manager of Cafe Kala, a modern cafe, said that his business will not suffer.

“We have implemented a non-smoking policy in our cafe already and clients’ reaction have not been bad. Our businesses will not be negatively affected by the new legislation”, he said.

But Nato, the manager of the more traditional Old Keria, disagreed.

“The vast majority of our customers smoke,” she said. “This will badly affect my business.”

The new packaging regulations will be imposed from January 2018 and the ban on smoking in public buildings a few months later.

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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Uzbekistan bans violent computer games to protect “civil harmony”

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TASHKENT, MAY 25 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government banned 34 computer games because it said that they were too violent and corrupted their users.

Investors and Western analysts will be concerned that the ban betrays an authoritarian streak in Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s administration but gamers in Tashkent suggested that it smacked more of a lack of understanding and incompetence.

The surprise announcement banned violent computer games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty but also covered less aggressive games such as The Sims which focuses on parenthood.

The Uzbek government press release said that the games were a threat “to the political stability of the country, civil peace, interethnic and interreligious harmony”.

Mr Mirziyoyev has been Uzbek president since September 2016 when the authoritarian Islam Karimov, who banned pool halls, died. Mr Mirziyoyev has made a virtue of appearing less authoritarian than his predecessor, talking up the possibility of currency liberalisation and opening up to foreign investors.

In Tashkent, kiosks selling computer games continued to trade as normal with shopkeepers claiming that they hadn’t even heard of the ban. And there was also a sense in internet cafes that the government didn’t understand gaming culture.

One gamer who wished to remain anonymous said that most people download their games over the internet.

“This ban won’t have any effect,” he said. “Real gamers don’t visit internet cafes as the computers there aren’t powerful enough for the games on the banned list.”

Another gamer said the ban was “feckless” and “stupid”. He said the government had already tried and failed to ban hundreds of films as well as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.

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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Georgia ratifies domestic violence convention

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MAY 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the first country in the former Soviet Union to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at increasing punishment for domestic violence, media reported. The Convention increases police powers and sets up a series of 24-hour telephone lines to report domestic violence.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

Turkmenistan’s anti-corruption drive speeds up

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MAY 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan is preparing a new draft law on combating corruption, continuing an anti-graft drive that has left onlookers wondering the motivation behind it. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has said that the anti-corruption campaign is aimed at defending ordinary people’s rights but analysts have said it may be a tool to distract from the economic downturn, linked to a drop in commodity prices, and also a way to unseat ministers and officials that are considered to be too powerful.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

HRW praises new Kyrgyz domestic violence laws

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BISHKEK, MAY 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) praised Kyrgyzstan for introducing new laws surrounding domestic violence, describing them as setting an important new standard for the region.

Activists have complained that domestic violence has largely gone unchecked and ignored by the male- dominated societies of Central Asia. They consider the introduction of the laws which make reporting domestic violence easier, as reported in issue 327 of The Conway Bulletin, to be groundbreaking.

Hillary Margolis, women’s rights researcher at HRW, said: “By enacting this new law, the Kyrgyz government has shown a commitment to the rights of domestic abuse victims and is setting a standard that others in the region should follow.”

The new laws improve protection for the victims of domestic violence and also validate that a complaint made by anybody about domestic violence has to be investigated by the police. Previously only a complaint by the direct victim had to be investigated and often these victims were reluctant to come forward.

HRW said that domestic violence was widespread in Kyrgyzstan, affecting a third of women. It said that only around half the cases were reported and, even then, only 7% were referred to courts as criminal cases.

It is a similar story across the region. Last year, in Kazakhstan, the issue of domestic violence was thrust into the mainstream when the popular TV host Bayan Yessentayeva was beaten by her husband at a petrol station outside Almaty. In subsequent interviews, women’s rights campaigners described domestic abuse as rampant because of a mix of heavy drinking and macho attitudes which subjugate women.

Referring to Kyrgyzstan, HRW said that the new laws needed to be backed-up by a change to the mindset.

“The new domestic violence law will only be meaningful if its promise is backed by action to make better protection for victims a reality,” Ms Margolis, from HRW, said.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)