Human rights in Uzbekistan
Encyclopedia
The state of human rights in Uzbekistan
has faced heavy criticism for the arbitrary arrests, religious persecution
, and torture
employed by the government on a regional and national level.
a Country of Particular Concern
for religious persecution.
Uzbekistan has become the first and the only Central Asia
n nation to abolish the death penalty in law and practice. The abolition, initiated by the August 2005 decrees of President Karimov, became effective on January 1, 2008. Capital punishment has been substituted by longer term deprivation of liberty and life sentencing.
Religious freedom is one of the most challenging issues in a predominantly Muslim
environment, where only two mainstream religions - Orthodox Christianity
and Judaism
- are recognized and tolerated by the country's traditional society.
The constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan asserts that "democracy in the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be based upon common human principles, according to which the highest value shall be the human being, his life, freedom, honor, dignity and other inalienable rights."
However, United States Department of State
defines Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights" and IHF
express profound concern about "wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights".
According to the reports, the most widespread violations are torture, arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly. The reports maintain that the violations are most often committed against members of religious organizations, independent journalists, human right activists, and political activists, including members of the banned opposition parties.
In 2005, Uzbekistan was included into Freedom House
's "The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies".
The official position is summarized in a memorandum "The measures taken by the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of providing and encouraging human rights" and amounts to the following. The government does everything that is in its power to protect and to guarantee the human rights of Uzbekistan's citizens. Uzbekistan continuously improves its laws and institutions in order to create a more humane society. Over 300 laws regulating the rights and basic freedoms of the people have been passed by the parliament. For instance, an office of Ombudsman
was established in 1996. On August 2, 2005, President Islom Karimov signed a decree that will abolish capital punishment in Uzbekistan on January 1, 2008.
Craig Murray
, British ambassador 2002-2004, investigated human rights abuses, and, when his bosses at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
ignored his reports, went public, garnering international attention for the situation. He was dismissed, but continued to agitate against human rights abuse in the country. He also claimed there was extraordinary rendition
by the United States of America to Uzbekistan, with surreptitious use of information obtained under torture as a result. Murray was removed from his post in October 2004, shortly after a leaked report in the Financial Times
quoted him as claiming that MI6 used intelligence provided by Uzbek authorities through torture. The FCO denied there was any direct connection and stated that Murray had been removed for "operational" reasons. It claimed that he had lost the confidence of senior officials and colleagues. In his 2007 book Murder in Samarkand
, Murray speculates that his anti-torture memos caused two problems for the US & UK governments. First, the CIA's extraordinary rendition program was secretly using Uzbekistan as a country to which to fly people to be tortured. Second, the transcripts of the torture sessions were then shared with Britain's MI6 because of the UK-US intelligence sharing agreements of WWII. By objecting to the UK's acceptance of CIA torture-obtained information, he was interfering with the secret rendition program as well as threatening the MI6's relationship with the CIA.
The 2005 civil unrest in Uzbekistan, which resulted in several hundred people being killed is viewed by many as a landmark event in the history of human rights abuse in Uzbekistan,
A concern has been expressed and a request for an independent investigation of the events has been made by the United States, European Union, the UN, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The government of Uzbekistan is accused of unlawful termination of human life, denying its citizens freedom of assembly
and freedom of expression. The government vehemently rebuffs the accusations, maintaining that it merely conducted an anti-terrorist operation, exercising only necessary force. In addition, some officials claim that "an information war on Uzbekistan has been declared" and the human rights violations in Andijan are invented by the enemies of Uzbekistan as a convenient pretext for intervention into the country's internal affairs.
which is not state-approved, including the Bible
, is often confiscated and destroyed.
Forum 18
, a human rights organization based in Norway, has documented raids by Uzbek police in which participants in unregistered religious services were beaten, fined, threatened and intimidated. In August 2005 one of the organisation's reporters was detained and deported by the authorities at Tashkent airport in Uzbekistan.
The Office of Public Information of Jehovah's Witnesses
has documented several cases with imprisonment for teaching religion. The Barnabas Fund
also states that Pastor Dmitri Shestakov was imprisoned for 4 years for Christian activities.
said in November 2007 that Uzbek prison authorities routinely beat prisoners and use electric shocks, asphyxiation and sexual humiliation to extract information and confessions. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August 2002 two prisoners were boiled to death.
in 2011.
Testing by the OpenNet Initiative
in 2007 and 2008 found evidence of pervasive first-generation filtering of the kind found in China and Iran.
Uzbekistan prevents access to websites regarding banned Islamic movements, independent media, NGOs, and material critical of the government's human rights violations. Some Internet cafes in the capital have posted warnings that users will be fined for viewing pornographic websites or website containing banned political material. The main VoIP protocols SIP
and IAX
used to be blocked for individual users; however, as of July 2010, blocks were no longer in place. Facebook was blocked for few days in 2010.
The principal intelligence agency in Uzbekistan, the National Security Service (SNB), monitors the Uzbek segment of the Internet and works with the main regulatory body to impose censorship. As all ISPs must rent channels from the state monopoly provider, available evidence strongly suggests that Internet traffic is recorded and monitored by means of a centralized system. SNB officers frequently visit ISPs and Internet cafés to monitor compliance.
, were not allowed to register with the government, and thus prevented from work in Uzbekistan.
, an opposition politician, and raided the office of Sunshine Uzbekistan, an opposition political alliance. United States Senators Bill Frist
and Richard Lugar introduced a resolution calling on the Uzbek government to make sure Umarov "is accorded the full measure of his rights under the Uzbekistan constitution to defend himself against all charges that may be brought against him in a fair and transparent process, so that individual justice may be done."
Tashkent citizens found the body of Kim Khen Pen Khin, a Pentecostal, on 11 June 2005. According to one another Pentecostal church member police treated church members worse than animals, several beating three of them. One, a pastor, had a concussion. Police initially accused Kural Bekjanov, another church member, of murdering Khin, but dropped the charges against him two days later. When police discovered his religion they broke his ribs and put needles under his fingernails to get him to renounce Christianity.
In August the Uzbek government detained Elena Urlayeva, a human rights activist, on charges of disseminating anti-government leaflets. In October a Tashkent court ordered Urlayeva to undergo psychiatric treatment in a mental health facility in a legal preceding in which neither she nor her lawyer were present. The government released Urlayeva on 27 October after officials abused and beat her.
The Immigration Service and Border Guards of the Government of Uzbekistan detained Igor Rotar
, a human rights activist who works for Forum 18 and Radio Free Europe
, on 11 August. Rotar's plane took off from Bishkek
, Kyrgyzstan and arrived at Tashkent Airport at 10:25AM. Amnesty International
condemned the incident, saying his "detention is part of a wave of intimidation and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders by the Uzbekistani authorities that escalated following the events in Andijan in May this year." Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said, "We are deeply concerned for Rotar's safety. He should be allowed to contact his organization and a lawyer, and should be released immediately."
On 29 April 2006, human rights workers Azam Farmonov
and Alisher Karamatov
were arrested and allegedly tortured by state security forces. They are currently serving prison terms on charges of extortion that Amnesty International
, Human Rights Watch
, and Front Line
have condemned as politically motivated.
On 25 October the Karshi-Khanabad court fined two Baptists from Ferghana and Tashkent US$438 while four others were given smaller fines for participating in unregistered religious activity after police raided a Baptist church in the city. 30 police raided a Pentecostal church in Tashkent on 13 November. Another raid on 27 August yielded 38 unapproved pieces of literature.
Uzbek state television played a show entitled "Hypocrites" on 30 November and 1 December, in which Protestant missionaries were said to have engaged in plagiarism and drug use. The program said, "On the pretext of financially helping people in need, [missionaries] instill their own teachings in these people's minds." Converts are "zombies." Begzot Kadyrov, specialist of the State's Religious Affairs Committee, commenting on the program, said, "Turning away from the religion of one's ancestors is not only one's own mistake but could also lead to very bad situations between brothers, sisters and between parents and their children." Converts to Christianity are "lost to family, friends and society."
, executive director of the International Helsinki Federation, criticized the suggestion, saying, "What that would really imply would be that the United Nations would reward the Uzbek government for its repressive policies and its refusal to cooperate with the Council. If the Human Rights Council can't take up the problems in Uzbekistan, then what is it for?"
in Tashkent
, Uzbekistan, on 21 December 2006 in the Tashkent airport. Fearing criminal prosecution, she left the country for Kyrgyzstan, returning on the advice of her lawyer who said that no criminal case would be brought against her. At the border, she was arrested and stood trial on charges of illegally crossing the border, smuggling and distribution of illegal content. Holly Cartner, a director at Human Rights Watch alleges that "Niazova was threatened with these charges for... her human rights work."
On May 1, 2007, an Uzbek court convicted Niazova and sentenced her to seven years in prison, on charges of "preparing or disseminating material containing a threat to security and order". The Uzbek government alleged she was storing on her laptop literature by an Islamist extremist group. Niazova had written news stories about deadly protests in Andijan
, Uzbekistan in 2005. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United States government, and Human Rights Watch criticized the sentence. On May 8, she confessed in court and she was given a suspended sentence and released.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
has faced heavy criticism for the arbitrary arrests, religious persecution
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....
, and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
employed by the government on a regional and national level.
Overview
The U.S. Department of State has designated UzbekistanUzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
a Country of Particular Concern
Country of Particular Concern
Country of Particular Concern is a designation by the United States Secretary of State of a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and its amendment of 1999...
for religious persecution.
Uzbekistan has become the first and the only Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n nation to abolish the death penalty in law and practice. The abolition, initiated by the August 2005 decrees of President Karimov, became effective on January 1, 2008. Capital punishment has been substituted by longer term deprivation of liberty and life sentencing.
Religious freedom is one of the most challenging issues in a predominantly Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
environment, where only two mainstream religions - Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
- are recognized and tolerated by the country's traditional society.
The constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan asserts that "democracy in the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be based upon common human principles, according to which the highest value shall be the human being, his life, freedom, honor, dignity and other inalienable rights."
However, United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
defines Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights" and IHF
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights was a self-governing group of non-governmental, not-for-profit organizations that act to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia...
express profound concern about "wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights".
According to the reports, the most widespread violations are torture, arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly. The reports maintain that the violations are most often committed against members of religious organizations, independent journalists, human right activists, and political activists, including members of the banned opposition parties.
In 2005, Uzbekistan was included into Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
's "The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies".
The official position is summarized in a memorandum "The measures taken by the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of providing and encouraging human rights" and amounts to the following. The government does everything that is in its power to protect and to guarantee the human rights of Uzbekistan's citizens. Uzbekistan continuously improves its laws and institutions in order to create a more humane society. Over 300 laws regulating the rights and basic freedoms of the people have been passed by the parliament. For instance, an office of Ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
was established in 1996. On August 2, 2005, President Islom Karimov signed a decree that will abolish capital punishment in Uzbekistan on January 1, 2008.
Craig Murray
Craig Murray
Craig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee....
, British ambassador 2002-2004, investigated human rights abuses, and, when his bosses at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
ignored his reports, went public, garnering international attention for the situation. He was dismissed, but continued to agitate against human rights abuse in the country. He also claimed there was extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
by the United States of America to Uzbekistan, with surreptitious use of information obtained under torture as a result. Murray was removed from his post in October 2004, shortly after a leaked report in the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
quoted him as claiming that MI6 used intelligence provided by Uzbek authorities through torture. The FCO denied there was any direct connection and stated that Murray had been removed for "operational" reasons. It claimed that he had lost the confidence of senior officials and colleagues. In his 2007 book Murder in Samarkand
Murder in Samarkand
Murder in Samarkand is a non-fiction book by British activist and former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. The book forms an account of Murray's controversial ambassadorship at the UK embassy in Tashkent in 2002–04...
, Murray speculates that his anti-torture memos caused two problems for the US & UK governments. First, the CIA's extraordinary rendition program was secretly using Uzbekistan as a country to which to fly people to be tortured. Second, the transcripts of the torture sessions were then shared with Britain's MI6 because of the UK-US intelligence sharing agreements of WWII. By objecting to the UK's acceptance of CIA torture-obtained information, he was interfering with the secret rendition program as well as threatening the MI6's relationship with the CIA.
The 2005 civil unrest in Uzbekistan, which resulted in several hundred people being killed is viewed by many as a landmark event in the history of human rights abuse in Uzbekistan,
A concern has been expressed and a request for an independent investigation of the events has been made by the United States, European Union, the UN, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The government of Uzbekistan is accused of unlawful termination of human life, denying its citizens freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
and freedom of expression. The government vehemently rebuffs the accusations, maintaining that it merely conducted an anti-terrorist operation, exercising only necessary force. In addition, some officials claim that "an information war on Uzbekistan has been declared" and the human rights violations in Andijan are invented by the enemies of Uzbekistan as a convenient pretext for intervention into the country's internal affairs.
Freedom of religion
Religious literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
which is not state-approved, including the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, is often confiscated and destroyed.
Forum 18
Forum 18
Forum 18 is a Norwegian human rights organization that promotes religious freedom. The organization's name is based on Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
, a human rights organization based in Norway, has documented raids by Uzbek police in which participants in unregistered religious services were beaten, fined, threatened and intimidated. In August 2005 one of the organisation's reporters was detained and deported by the authorities at Tashkent airport in Uzbekistan.
The Office of Public Information of Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
has documented several cases with imprisonment for teaching religion. The Barnabas Fund
Barnabas Fund
The Barnabas Fund is an international, interdenominational Christian aid agency that supports Christians who face discrimination or persecution as a consequence of their faith...
also states that Pastor Dmitri Shestakov was imprisoned for 4 years for Christian activities.
Torture
U.S.-based Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
said in November 2007 that Uzbek prison authorities routinely beat prisoners and use electric shocks, asphyxiation and sexual humiliation to extract information and confessions. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August 2002 two prisoners were boiled to death.
Internet
Uzbekistan is listed as an Internet enemy by Reporters Without BordersReporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
in 2011.
Testing by the OpenNet Initiative
OpenNet Initiative
The OpenNet Initiative is a joint project whose goal is to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employs a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigators, to determine the extent and nature of government-run...
in 2007 and 2008 found evidence of pervasive first-generation filtering of the kind found in China and Iran.
Uzbekistan prevents access to websites regarding banned Islamic movements, independent media, NGOs, and material critical of the government's human rights violations. Some Internet cafes in the capital have posted warnings that users will be fined for viewing pornographic websites or website containing banned political material. The main VoIP protocols SIP
Session Initiation Protocol
The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...
and IAX
IAX
IAX is the Inter-Asterisk eXchange protocol native to Asterisk PBX and supported by a number of other softswitches and PBXs. It is used for enabling VoIP connections between servers beside client–server communication....
used to be blocked for individual users; however, as of July 2010, blocks were no longer in place. Facebook was blocked for few days in 2010.
The principal intelligence agency in Uzbekistan, the National Security Service (SNB), monitors the Uzbek segment of the Internet and works with the main regulatory body to impose censorship. As all ISPs must rent channels from the state monopoly provider, available evidence strongly suggests that Internet traffic is recorded and monitored by means of a centralized system. SNB officers frequently visit ISPs and Internet cafés to monitor compliance.
2004
The U.S. State Department's 2004 report on human rights in Uzbekistan found limited improvement. While no detainees died while in police custody, police negligence led to the deaths of four prisoners. National Security Service officials "tortured, beat, and harassed" citizens but human rights activists were allowed to investigate instances in which prisoners died and activists suspected torture as the cause of death. Security forces did not arrest journalists and three were released. Some non-governmental organizations, most notably the Open Society InstituteOpen Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
, were not allowed to register with the government, and thus prevented from work in Uzbekistan.
2005
In 2005 the Uzbek government arrested Sanjar UmarovSanjar Umarov
Sanjar Guiess Umarov is a prominent Uzbek politician and businessman. He is the chairman of Sunshine Uzbekistan, the main party in opposition to president Islam Karimov's authoritarian rule...
, an opposition politician, and raided the office of Sunshine Uzbekistan, an opposition political alliance. United States Senators Bill Frist
Bill Frist
William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America. Frist later served two terms as a Republican United States Senator representing...
and Richard Lugar introduced a resolution calling on the Uzbek government to make sure Umarov "is accorded the full measure of his rights under the Uzbekistan constitution to defend himself against all charges that may be brought against him in a fair and transparent process, so that individual justice may be done."
Tashkent citizens found the body of Kim Khen Pen Khin, a Pentecostal, on 11 June 2005. According to one another Pentecostal church member police treated church members worse than animals, several beating three of them. One, a pastor, had a concussion. Police initially accused Kural Bekjanov, another church member, of murdering Khin, but dropped the charges against him two days later. When police discovered his religion they broke his ribs and put needles under his fingernails to get him to renounce Christianity.
In August the Uzbek government detained Elena Urlayeva, a human rights activist, on charges of disseminating anti-government leaflets. In October a Tashkent court ordered Urlayeva to undergo psychiatric treatment in a mental health facility in a legal preceding in which neither she nor her lawyer were present. The government released Urlayeva on 27 October after officials abused and beat her.
The Immigration Service and Border Guards of the Government of Uzbekistan detained Igor Rotar
Igor Rotar
Igor Rotar is a Russian journalist. From 2003 to early 2007 he was the Central Asian news correspondent for Forum 18, a human rights organization based in Norway that promotes religious freedom...
, a human rights activist who works for Forum 18 and Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
, on 11 August. Rotar's plane took off from Bishkek
Bishkek
Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...
, Kyrgyzstan and arrived at Tashkent Airport at 10:25AM. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
condemned the incident, saying his "detention is part of a wave of intimidation and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders by the Uzbekistani authorities that escalated following the events in Andijan in May this year." Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said, "We are deeply concerned for Rotar's safety. He should be allowed to contact his organization and a lawyer, and should be released immediately."
2006
An unknown individual strangled Karina Rivka Loiper, secretary to Rabbi Abe David Gurevich, and her mother on 12 June in Tashkent. While police ruled it a robbery, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States called for an investigation. Jewish community leaders said a spokesman for the Committee on Religious Affairs warned them against "politicizing" Loiper's death.On 29 April 2006, human rights workers Azam Farmonov
Azam Farmonov
Azam Farmonov is a currently-imprisoned Uzbekistani rural development activist. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience and named him a 2011 "priority case".Farmonov has a wife, Ozoda Yakubova, and two children...
and Alisher Karamatov
Alisher Karamatov
Alisher Karamatov is a currently-imprisoned Uzbekistani rural development activist. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience and named him a 2011 "priority case"....
were arrested and allegedly tortured by state security forces. They are currently serving prison terms on charges of extortion that Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, and Front Line
Front Line (NGO)
Front Line or The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is an Irish-based human rights organisation founded in Dublin, Ireland in 2001 to protect human rights defenders at risk, i.e...
have condemned as politically motivated.
On 25 October the Karshi-Khanabad court fined two Baptists from Ferghana and Tashkent US$438 while four others were given smaller fines for participating in unregistered religious activity after police raided a Baptist church in the city. 30 police raided a Pentecostal church in Tashkent on 13 November. Another raid on 27 August yielded 38 unapproved pieces of literature.
Uzbek state television played a show entitled "Hypocrites" on 30 November and 1 December, in which Protestant missionaries were said to have engaged in plagiarism and drug use. The program said, "On the pretext of financially helping people in need, [missionaries] instill their own teachings in these people's minds." Converts are "zombies." Begzot Kadyrov, specialist of the State's Religious Affairs Committee, commenting on the program, said, "Turning away from the religion of one's ancestors is not only one's own mistake but could also lead to very bad situations between brothers, sisters and between parents and their children." Converts to Christianity are "lost to family, friends and society."
2007
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), Human Rights Watch, and the International Federation for Human Rights International asked the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to continue monitoring human rights in Uzbekistan on 22 March 2007. The council is considering ending its observation. Aaron RhodesAaron Rhodes
Aaron Rhodes is an international human rights activist, university lecturer and essayist based in Hamburg, Germany. He served as Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights between 1993 and 2007, during which period the IHF was engaged inter alia in human rights...
, executive director of the International Helsinki Federation, criticized the suggestion, saying, "What that would really imply would be that the United Nations would reward the Uzbek government for its repressive policies and its refusal to cooperate with the Council. If the Human Rights Council can't take up the problems in Uzbekistan, then what is it for?"
Umida Niazova case
Uzbek police detained Umida Niazova, a human rights activist who worked for local group Veritas and Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
in Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, Uzbekistan, on 21 December 2006 in the Tashkent airport. Fearing criminal prosecution, she left the country for Kyrgyzstan, returning on the advice of her lawyer who said that no criminal case would be brought against her. At the border, she was arrested and stood trial on charges of illegally crossing the border, smuggling and distribution of illegal content. Holly Cartner, a director at Human Rights Watch alleges that "Niazova was threatened with these charges for... her human rights work."
On May 1, 2007, an Uzbek court convicted Niazova and sentenced her to seven years in prison, on charges of "preparing or disseminating material containing a threat to security and order". The Uzbek government alleged she was storing on her laptop literature by an Islamist extremist group. Niazova had written news stories about deadly protests in Andijan
Andijan
Andijan or Andizhan is the fourth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the Andijan Province. It is located in the east of the country, at , in the Fergana Valley, near the border with Kyrgyzstan on the Andijan-Say River...
, Uzbekistan in 2005. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United States government, and Human Rights Watch criticized the sentence. On May 8, she confessed in court and she was given a suspended sentence and released.
See also
- Human rights in AsiaHuman rights in AsiaHuman rights in Asia primarily rely on the protection and championing by States, non-governmental organizations, and individuals. Unlike Europe, Africa, and the Americas, Asia does not have an intergovernmental convention on human rights. In Asia, human rights are given much importance specially to...
- LGBT rights in UzbekistanLGBT rights in UzbekistanSex between two men is illegal in Uzbekistan. Punishment ranges from a fine to 3 years in prison.Penal Code 1994/95 *§ 120“Besoqolbozlik, that is, voluntary sexual intercourse of two male individuals – shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years.” -See also:*Human rights in...
- Women in UzbekistanWomen in UzbekistanWhile Uzbek law provides some safeguards for women’s security, there are still areas where full legal protection is lacking. Extra-legal traditions harmful to Uzbek women still exist in some segments of society....
External links
- High Prevalence of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Uzbekistan Central Asia Health Review Apr. 28, 2008
- Human rights in Uzbekistan
- Human rights in Uzbekistan, OHCHR
- Forum 18 Uzbekistan Religious Freedom Survey, August 2008
- Ombudsman