Protocol on Refugee Issues

• Country/entity

  Tajikistan
  
• Region

  Europe and Eurasia
  
• Agreement name

  Protocol on Refugee Issues
• Date

  13 Jan 1997
• Agreement status

  Multiparty signed/agreed
• Interim arrangement

  Yes
• Agreement/conflict level

  Intrastate/intrastate conflict ( Tajikistani Civil War (1992 - 1997) )
• Stage

  Framework/substantive - partial
• Conflict nature

  Government
• Peace process

  Tajikistan peace process
• Parties

  (Signed) Talbak NAZAROV, Head of the delegation of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan
  
  (Signed) Khoja Akbar TURAJONZODAH, Head of the delegation of the United Tajik Opposition
• Third parties

  (Signed) Gerd Dietrich MERREM, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Tajikistan
  
  The parties also expressed their gratitude for their assistance to the UNHRC, OSCE, donor countries and the Aga Khan Foundation.
• Description

  Commits to mutual efforts to ensure ‘the voluntary return, in safety and dignity, of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes.’ Calls on OSCE and UNHCR to become involved. Government commits to reintegration. Reinvigorates a Joint Commission on refugees.

• Agreement document

  TJ_970113_ProtocolOnRefugees.pdf | Download PDF

Groups

Gender

State definition

Governance

Power sharing

Human rights and equality

Rights related issues

Rights institutions

Justice sector reform

Socio-economic reconstruction

Land, property and environment

Security sector

Transitional justice

Implementation

Protocol on refugees, signed in Tehran on 13 January 1997

With a view to overcoming the consequences of the civil war and achieving peace and national accord in the country, and in accordance with the protocol on the fundamental principles for establishing peace and national accord in Tajikistan of 17 August 1995, the joint statement on the results of the fourth round of inter-Tajik talks in Almaty and the appeal by the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Mr. Emomali S. Rakhmonov, and the leader of the United Tajik Opposition, Mr. S. Abdullo Nuri, to their fellow countrymen who had been forced to leave the country, adopted in Moscow on 23 December 1996, the delegations of the Republic of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition (hereinafter referred to as "the Parties"), have agreed as follows:

1. To step up mutual efforts to ensure the voluntary return, in safety and dignity, of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes, and to complete this process within 12 to 18 months from the date of signature of this Protocol.

With a view to ensuring their safety, honour and dignity, the Parties also call upon the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide assistance in order to ensure the safety of returning refugees and displaced persons and to establish and expand their presence at places where such persons are living.

2. The Government of the Republic of Tajikistan assumes the obligation to reintegrate returning refugees and displaced persons into the social and

economic life of the country, which includes the provision to them of humanitarian and financial aid, assistance in finding employment and housing and the restoration of all their rights as citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan (including the return to them of dwellings and property and guaranteed

uninterrupted service), and not to institute criminal proceedings against returning refugees or displaced persons for their participation in the political

confrontation and the civil war, in accordance with the legislative acts in force in the Republic.

3. The Parties have decided to resume the work of the Joint Commission on problems relating to refugees and, within one month from the date of signature of this Protocol, with the assistance of UNHCR, to draw up a statute of the Commission.

4. The Parties have decided to instruct the Joint Commission, with the participation of representatives of local hukumats (executive committees) and the United Tajik Opposition for the period during which this Protocol is being implemented, to visit on a regular basis, in accordance with a separate timetable, refugee camps in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, places in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) where there are concentrations of refugees and districts in the Republic of Tajikistan to which refugees and displaced persons intend to return.

Similar visits shall be organized by the Joint Commission to places where displaced persons live in large numbers.

The above-mentioned timetable shall be agreed by the Joint Commission within one month from the date of signature of this Protocol.

5. The Parties appeal to the Governments of the CIS States to consider issuing temporary identity documents to refugees from Tajikistan and to assist UNHCR in carrying out additional measures to ensure the safety of refugees and to defend their honour and dignity.

6. The Parties express their sincere gratitude to the United Nations, UNHCR, OSCE, donor countries and the Aga Khan Foundation for their assistance and at the same time make an urgent appeal to them and to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Development Bank, the Islamic Bank and the Aga Khan Foundation to provide additional and substantial financial and material support to refugees and displaced persons and to the Joint Commission on problems relating to refugees, and also for the purpose of rehabilitating the national economy destroyed by the war and improving the well-being of the population.

(Signed) Talbak NAZAROV Head of the delegation of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan

(Signed) Khoja Akbar TURAJONZODAH Head of the delegation of the United Tajik Opposition

(Signed) Gerd Dietrich MERREM Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Tajikistan