Human Rights and Democracy Report 2017 - Uzbekistan

There were positive developments in Uzbekistan in 2017, which have the potential to improve significantly the wider human rights environment in the country.

In 2017, Uzbekistan re-engaged with international human rights bodies. In May, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein became the first ever UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Uzbekistan. Subsequently, there was a visit by Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The authorities followed up these visits, engaging with the UN on prison reform, freedom of religion or belief, torture, media freedom, civil society, gender equality and labour reforms. The leading international human rights NGO, Human Rights Watch, was also invited back to the country, and was received at a senior level. Following these very welcome high-level and high-profile exchanges, there now needs to be consistent implementation of tangible reform.

During 2017, the government began to reform the criminal justice system, focusing on protecting the rights of individuals. Since this series of reforms was announced, a conviction for religious extremism was successfully appealed and a judge was dismissed for not following due process. We welcomed progress on prison reform, particularly releases of a number of high-profile prisoners whose detentions had been politically motivated, including Rustam Usmanov, Muhammad Bekjanov, Erkin Musayev, A'zam Farmonov, Sali Abdurakhmanov, A'zam Turgunov, Mamatkhanov Ganikhon and Muhammadali Karabaev. There also appeared to be a reduction in the practice of arbitrarily extending prison sentences during the year. However, challenges remain. We have concerns over the legal process followed and treatment in custody of journalists arrested in the autumn and accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional system. Widespread allegations continued to be made of torture in custody, so we welcomed the law introducing CCTV into holding cells, and the presidential decree making evidence obtained through torture or harassment inadmissible in court.

Freedom of religion or belief remains a sensitive issue. Uzbekistan permits the practice of officially registered religions. However, registering new religious groups or groups in new locations remains a challenging and opaque process, in effect criminalising those who practise their religion outside state-sanctioned structures. President Mirziyoev has called for greater tolerance, support and rehabilitation of individuals formerly charged with radicalisation and of their families. In August, the government stated that it had removed from a 'black-list' the names of approximately 16,000 individuals, many previously accused of religious extremism.

State authorities continued to harass some human rights defenders (HRDs), but have also begun to meet HRDs directly to discuss their concerns, for example on labour issues connected to the cotton harvest. The highly restrictive Ministry of Justice Order 177 on procedures regulating NGO activity remained in force. The authorities permitted small-scale demonstrations. They also initially allowed an unauthorised demonstration of at least 200 people in Tashkent, protesting against police inaction over the death of a student, to go ahead. However, the organisers were later sentenced, in a closed hearing without legal representation, to administrative detention of 10 and 15 days. Demonstrations on the anniversary of the events in Andijan in 2005 took place unchallenged.

In 2017, Uzbekistan continued to work on the Decent Work Country Programme for 2014-2016[51]. We followed the work of the ILO and World Bank in this area. Higher prices for cotton and higher wages for the pickers led to better conditions in the cotton harvest. We received credible reports of schools, universities and hospitals in several regions being required to provide workers for the harvest, although there were fewer such reports after President Mirziyoev referred to the issue in his speech to the UN General Assembly in September. Human rights activists and embassies conducting independent monitoring of the harvests found the authorities less obstructive than in previous years.

On gender equality and women's rights, the Uzbek government has taken measures to address the issue of suicides among young women and the high incidence of domestic violence. The Women's Committee has drafted a National Action Plan to fulfil the obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women for Uzbekistan's 2018 Universal Periodic Review. Primary and secondary education are compulsory and free of charge for both boys and girls. According to UNICEF the literacy rate is 99.98% for women and 99.99% for men. Government policy is to support gender parity in education.

Consensual sexual activity between people of the same gender remains illegal and LGBT people in the country continue to face discrimination and homophobia.

President Mirziyoev promised significant reforms to the political system. He publicly held government officials to account and introduced elections for local government leaders. However, freedom of association was still restricted, in effect preventing the formation of credible, independent opposition parties.

There was growing freedom of expression. President Mirziyoev has pushed the media to become more critical and analytical, but traditional media has been slow to modernise, and self-censorship is rife. By contrast, online and social media provided an increasingly popular means to speak out. Media stations were encouraged to use content from international news agencies, but progress on the accreditation of foreign journalists was slow. We continued to hear from a variety of sources about the harassment of families of Uzbek journalists working overseas.

During 2017, the British Embassy expanded its programme supporting progress on human rights and good governance. We funded projects on promoting the rule of law, prison reform, press freedom, media plurality and women's rights (including education reform, empowerment and preventing domestic violence), and we actively monitored developments in the area of labour reform, including the cotton harvest.

In 2018, we will continue to prioritise support for Uzbekistan's reform programme, media development and plurality. We will also continue to address adult involuntary labour, and will support the empowerment of women.

[51] http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/program/dwcp/download/uzbekistan.pdf