Ahead of this year’s EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) submitted briefing materials to the EU on key concerns and recommendations regarding violations of the rights to freedoms of association and expression, torture, criminalisation of homosexuality and discrimination of LGBT+ individuals, and domestic violence.
Despite an ambitious reform programme, in President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Uzbekistan, judicial independence continues to be routinely undermined by the executive branch of power; the government continues to refute credible reports of torture and ill-treatment; past abuses have not been addressed; local human rights defenders, independent journalists and bloggers and others who voice criticism of the government continue to be at risk of reprisals; consensual homosexual adult sex is an offence in Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code; and domestic violence remains a matter of grave concern.
We urge delegates from the EU to raise these recommendations with Uzbekistan government.
Read IPHR-AHRCA briefing paper here.