A/HRC/55/51/Add.2 well as Mr. Pirmukhammadzoda, who were ill-treated and tortured, including to extract false confessions.25 75. Those individuals are among the more than 100 Pamiri to have faced arbitrary arrest and summary trials in the past two years, with few of the accused having been given access to legal representation. Their trials invariably failed to be free or fair: some were declared secret, held behind closed doors or marred by other violations of due process or with lawyers who, if present, were made to sign non-disclosure agreements. 76. There have been numerous demands from international organizations, including United Nations human rights mechanisms, 26 for effective, thorough and impartial investigations into those and other reported cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, intimidation and harassment of and threats and reprisals against Pamiri activists, human rights defenders, members of civil society organizations and journalists and to ensure accountability for the perpetrators and to provide remedies to the victims. The State authorities have still refused to respond to those demands. There have also been no independent and impartial investigations into the reports of torture and extrajudicial killings of Pamiri civilians during the violent events of 2022. 77. When asked why authorities would not agree to undertake any impartial investigations, the Governor of the Kŭhistoni Badakhshon Autonomous Province simply refused to acknowledge any need to comply, since the Government had already concluded that all those involved were terrorists or criminals. 78. Members of the Pamiri minority appear to be at the receiving end of large-scale exclusionary and discriminatory practices, including difficulty in obtaining positions in the civil service, where they appear to be underrepresented, and representation in political institutions, a prohibition by the State authorities against the use of the Pamiri languages by teachers and students and the deployment of security forces into schools to monitor compliance and a general ban on the use of Pamiri languages in State institutions and the media, among a multitude of grievances over the treatment of the Pamiri ethnic, religious and linguistic minority. VII. Conclusions and recommendations 79. Tajikistan must be commended for its recent significant engagement with international human rights mechanisms and encouraged to pursue such paths. A new generation of State officials and leadership appear to be willing to work towards a more open and democratic society that fully participates in and is a part of the international community. Such engagement must be supported to bring about the genuine, lasting changes that are vital if Tajikistan is to move away from the shackles of its past and the legacy of the Soviet era. 80. The Special Rapporteur notes, however, that the current level of engagement and the initial steps to adopt new legislation, strategies and plans of action in relation to the country’s international human rights commitments must be implemented and reflected in the actual practices on the ground or they risk being mere window dressing. The treatment of minorities, who are often the most vulnerable members of society, can be seen as the canary in the coal mine in terms of whether or not a State’s human rights obligations are truly being met. 81. The Special Rapporteur considers that it is time for the Government of Tajikistan to take the much more radical and specific steps that are essential to implement its legal and political commitments in a transformative way. 82. In that context, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the United Nations and other international and regional organizations assist Tajikistan in a three-year technical and financial programme to support a dedicated national reporting 25 26 16 OHCHR, “Tajikistan: UN experts deplore criminal proceedings against human rights defenders”, 4 July 2023. See also communication TJK 1/2023. CERD/C/TJK/CO/12-13, para. 36; and communication TJK 5/2022, p. 8. GE.24-00946