Central Asia

In the early 1990s, the former Soviet republics became independent states. The years following independence were a time of significant political reform, of re-arrangement of political elites, and the adoption of new legal texts, norms and values corresponding to the new socio-economic-political situation. Post-Soviet countries also began the process of active integration into the system of international relations, of establishing sovereign diplomatic relations, and adhering to international political and economic unions, conventions and treaties. In this publication, authors highlight the main problems and challenges to freedom of religion, expression, association and to the religious dimension of education in the five post-Soviet Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.