1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 227. Local self-government of Pamir people in Badakhshan Mountains, Republic of Tadjikistan, 1996-2001 and beyond.

Keywords

2. Author’s information:
2.1 Author’s Name
Vassily Filippov

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details
Centre for Civilization and Regional Studies
Russian Academy of Sciences Spiridonovka street 30/1
Moscow, 103001
Russia
Tel./Fax:: (095) 202-33-11
E-mail: fvr@east.ru

2.3 Date recorded
08/03/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The local self-government institutions of Pamir people ("Jamoat") are an historical tradition of people of Mountain Badakhshan. After the civil war in Tadjikistan ended, the Jamoat have been playing a significant role in preventing inter-ethnic clashes in Mountain Badakhshan and in the reconciliation process between Tadjik and Pamir peoples. The multiethnic NGO La'li Badakhshan represents the Pamir people interests in the dialogue with the Tadjikistan government.

3.2 Location:
The Mountain-Badakhshan autonomous oblast (GBAO), Republic of Tadjikistan.

3.3 Minorities/Target groups
Ethnic minorities – various ethnic communities belonging to the broad Pamir group: Shunghan, Roushan, Vakhan, Yazgoulem, Ishkashim.

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
This information is not available

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was first proposed in 1991, it was officially launched in 1994, put into practice in 1996 and is expected to continue indefinitely.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The Constitution of the Republic of Tadjikistan was adopted on 6 November 1994. Section 6 (paragraphs 76-80) describes local government and self-government. The "Majilis" is a local legislative power body in districts ("oblast"), towns and regions; "Jamoats" are local self-government bodies in villages.

National Laws "On Local Administrative Bodies" and "On Local Self-government in towns and villages", adopted by Majilisi Oli (Parliament) of the Republic of Tadjikistan on December, 1^st, 1994 are the basis of local power reform. Jamoats, created on the territorial principle, are supposed to become democratic power structures. They promote citizens’ right to participation in civil and state activities.

4. Good Practice Description
Pamir peoples are small and isolated ethnic communities that can be subdivided in several sub-ethnic groups. The most populous among them is the Shunghan-Roushan group (including Shunghan and Roushan peoples), with a population of about 40,000, followed by the Vakhan (20,000). Other groups with their own languages are much smaller – each one is about 3,000-4,000 (Yazgoulem, Ishkashim, etc).

The mentioned groups live in the Badakhshan Mountains in villages or groups of villages situated in river valleys and canyons. These ethno-territorial settlements are the basis of local government authorities, which perform traditional communitarian functionstypical of isolated small mountainous ethnic groups. The setting-up of these structures of local self-government (jamoat) began after the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Tadjikistan in 1994. However, the so-called jamoat system actually started to function only in 1997 after the end of the civil war.

The jamoati dekhot of each single village selects its representatives to be included in the jamoat ( including representatives of neighbouring villages). The local Majilisi (parliament) of peoples’ deputies, or alternatively the heads of local executive power, determine the rules for representation and for the delegation of powers. The main form of local government are periodic meetings of villages representatives. These meetings are called by the chairman when necessary, and they must in any case not meet less than twice a year.

All decisions are taken by voting by show of hands and by a simple majority rule. Any jamoat administration elects a chairman, a vice-chairman and a secretary for a five-year term. Jamoat members, representing their villages, are elected in the common meetings of such villages by showing hands, their term is decided by villages residents.

A jamoat’s task is to deal with and solve problems of special importance for their ethno-territorial communities. According to the law, the jamoat can adopt their own plans as to their activities and the financial resources to be allocated to the local power’s organs. Also within a jamoat’s jurisdiction are:

A jamoat must approve its chairman’s proposals concerning:

It is also up to the jamoat to establish the working hours for commercial, public catering and servicing enterprises.

The multiethnic Pamir communities are defined in the Constitution as a specific part of the citizenship of the Republic of Tadjikistan. The Constitution makes Badakhshan an autonomous republic. While the central government formally recognises this, in practice it has tried to diminish Badakhshan autonomy using all possibilities, legal as well ad practical. The relationships between the central government and Badakhshan became more complicated and unstable because of the support given by the mountainous people to the armed opposition in the Tadjik civil war. In this context, after the civil war ended, the jamoat played an important role in peace process.