Kerem Tuncer

The Government of Tajikistan caught up with the naming law trend in 2016 when it enacted a law that banned Russian patronymics and surnames ending with “-ov,” “-ev,” “-ovich,” and “-ovna.” The new law requires for all patronymics and surnames to be formed, and written in official and personal documents, in the Tajik language, using endings such as “-zod,” “-zoda,” “-y,” “-yon,” “-far” and “-pur. (Najibullah, 2016 and Majlisi Oli, 2016)” This ban was later followed by a restriction on Arabic-sounding “foreign” names, such as Muhammad, Yusuf, Abubakr, Sumayah, and Aisha because they “divide people into castes (Majlisi Oli, 2016).” Instead, citizens must adhere to the list of some 4,000 approved names for newborns by the State Committee for Language and Terminology (Радио ОЗОДИ, 2016). Hence, this essay argues that the Tajik naming laws of 2016 have led to the violation of Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The medical model, as opposed to the HRW-recommended social model, defines a disability as “the result of a physical condition, which is intrinsic to the individual. By extension, the medical model also believes that a ‘compassionate’ or just society invests resources in health care and related services in an attempt to cure disabilities medically…and to allow disabled persons a more ‘normal’ life. Lately, many experts and NGOs have criticized the medical model and regarded it as a significant cause of discrimination faced by persons with disabilities. Ergo, is the traditional medical model of disability a reason for the related disability rights problems/violations in developing countries? The importance of this question lies in the fact that disability rights is an issue that is usually neglected in the study of Human Rights, although it directly affects millions of people every day. This essay argues that the usage of the medical model in Turkmenistan has led to disability rights violations of Articles 12, 17, 23, 14, and 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Today, Russian Jews constitute approximately 15% of Israel’s population. Although a lot of them came to Israel to pursue the Zionist dream and to escape antisemitism, a majority of them came for better economic prospects that were not present in unstable post-Soviet Russia because of discrimination. Considering the timely overlap between the conservatization of Israelis and the arrival of Post-Soviet Jews, it is highly possible that a correlation between the two exists. Hence, this paper argues that the emigration of Russian Jews in the Post-Soviet Aliyah of the 1990s has contributed as a factor to the Israeli population’s movement towards the right-wing in two ways, one being internal and the other being external in relation to the Russian-Jewish immigrants. (1) Internally, conservative values, especially regarding the Palestine situation, held by the Russian Jews strengthened right-wing alliances and increased the population of the right-wing support base. (2) Externally, the overwhelming number of Soviet immigrants has caused Israel to reevaluate its immigration policy and take a more conservative approach while creating a discriminatory atmosphere filled with prejudices towards the Russian-Jews of the Post-Soviet Aliyah.