The authorities maintained a tight grip on information, punished critics and censored internet access. Independent voices faced prosecution, travel bans and other reprisals, while dissidents abroad risked arrest and potential deportation. Enforced disappearances persisted, with some prisoners not being released after the expiration of their terms. Torture and other ill-treatment in detention remained widespread, with no independent oversight. Same-sex sexual relations between men remained criminalized. The country’s carbon-intensive economy undermined its climate commitments amid growing gas extraction. Water scarcity remained a serious issue threatening food security.

Background

Turkmenistan’s economy grew more slowly than in 2024, while inflation rose, particularly affecting less well-off groups. Despite plans to expand the private sector and diversify, the economy continued to rely heavily on natural gas extraction. The authorities pursued major energy projects, including the development of new gas deposits and construction of a pipeline to India.

The authorities continued their attempts to raise the country’s international profile, with limited success. The Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries was held in Turkmenistan in August, focused on improving connectivity, trade facilitation and sustainable development. The event, attended by the UN Secretary-General, avoided discussion of Turkmenistan’s human rights issues.

Freedom of expression

The country remained effectively closed to human rights monitoring. The authorities tightly controlled information within the country and severely restricted its exchange with the outside world. Independent journalists and other local sources faced intimidation and reprisals for covering sensitive issues.

Internet access remained expensive and slow. Authorities censored access to websites containing independent information and proscribed or tightly controlled virtual private network (VPN) services.

Activist Murat Dushemov, imprisoned in 2021 for purported extortion and violence, completed his four-year prison sentence in June. Instead of being released, however, he faced apparently trumped-up charges of beating another inmate and was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in a closed trial on 16 September.

Turkmenistani authorities targeted independent journalists and critics abroad. In May, activist Umida Bekchanova was arrested in Türkiye with a view to deporting her to Turkmenistan. The deportation was postponed, but her exact status remained unknown at the end of the year.

In April, Turkmenistani bloggers and activists Alisher Sakhatov and Abdulla Orusov were arrested in Türkiye and placed in a deportation centre. They disappeared from there in July and were likely secretly returned to Turkmenistan. Neither country had disclosed their fate or whereabouts by the end of the year.

Videoblogger Didar Amansakhatov went missing in November after criticizing meat prices. He was subsequently reported to have died under unclear circumstances, raising suspicion that he had been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and unlawfully killed.

Authorities ignored a communication from the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders regarding the forcible hospitalization and alleged attempted poisoning of journalist Soltan Achilova, apparently in order to prevent her from travelling to an international human rights event.

Media sources reported that the authorities in Balkan province banned private law firms and printing shops from helping their customers to write, print or copy appeals to the president, threatening licence revocation for non-compliance.

Freedom of movement

The authorities continued to impose arbitrary travel bans, including on people apparently suspected of dissent and their relatives. Independent journalist Nurgeldy Khalykov was prevented from leaving Turkmenistan in January by an arbitrary decision of an undisclosed government body. Activist Murat Dushemov’s brother and sister were arbitrarily denied permission to leave the country.

Enforced disappearances

Turkmenistan continued to use prolonged incommunicado detention, which may amount to enforced disappearance, and failed to release prisoners who had completed their sentences. These included dozens of individuals accused of participating in an alleged assassination attempt on then-president Saparmurat Niyazov in 2002. The authorities persisted in refusing to disclose their status, fate or whereabouts or to investigate their disappearances.

Torture and other ill-treatment

The UN Committee against Torture in its April review expressed deep concerns about allegations of widespread practice of torture and other ill-treatment including beatings, denial of medical care and prolonged solitary confinement in places of detention.

There was no independent oversight of penitentiary institutions by either national or international monitors.

According to reports, allegedly gay prisoners were subjected to anal tests that violated the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.

LGBTI people’s rights

Consensual sexual conduct between men remained criminalized, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment.

Security services reportedly detained and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment more than 20 alleged gay men and adolescent boys in order to extort money. Authorities also reportedly arrested women and girls thought to be lesbian and pressured their families to “marry them off” as soon as possible.

Right to water

Severe problems persisted with access to water for agriculture and other needs, undermining food security and economic development. Factors contributing to water scarcity included the lack of a comprehensive water strategy, the authorities’ failure to maintain and improve water facilities, and the inefficient use of water resources in agriculture.

Right to a healthy environment

Turkmenistan continued to rely on gas for electricity generation and other uses. Its economy was the most carbon-intensive in the region, according to the UN, jeopardizing the country’s commitments to reducing its climate change footprint under the Paris Agreement and the Global Methane Pledge.

Turkmenistan pursued plans to further expand its production of natural gas, including through development of the large Galkynysh gas deposit.