Report on Human Rights Practices Country of Uzbekistan
Contents:
Authorities have imprisoned thousands of people on politically motivated charges, mostly religious believers, but also rights and opposition activists, journalists, and other perceived critics. Authorities frequently subject detainees to torture and arbitrarily extend their sentences. On October 25, prison authorities released a human rights defender, Bobomurod Razzakov, on medical grounds one year prior to the end of a four-year sentence.
But evidence emerged that Razzakov was seriously ill-treated and denied appropriate medical care in prison. In November, following a public appeal for his release by the US State Department and human rights groups, authorities also released the long-serving political activist Samandar Kukanov, behind bars since , reversing an earlier decision to extend his term of imprisonment by an additional three years.
Kukanov, also a victim of torture in custody, was seriously ill at the time of his release.
Official Reports | U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan
With the exception of the rights group Ezgulik , which was allowed to meet with four prisoners in July, August, and October, authorities continue to deny diplomatic missions, the International Committee for the Red Cross, and human rights organizations access to prisons and other detention centers. He had been due for release in February , but no one knew of his fate because authorities forcibly disappeared him in prison, denying anyone information about his whereabouts or fate since In March , long-time rights defender Elena Urlaeva, head of the Tashkent-based Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, checked into the Tashkent Psychiatric Clinic after experiencing multiple traumatic events, including ill-treatment by police.
The hospital released Urlaeva on June 1, after significant international pressure.
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It is not known by how many years his term has been extended and his current whereabouts are unknown. During the trial, no evidence was brought against Yusupov to corroborate the charges. The government forces more than 1 million adults every autumn to pick cotton in abusive conditions on pain of punishment.
Following a decade of global pressure, authorities did not mobilize children to harvest cotton in , as in , but instead increased the number of forced adult laborers to meet annual production quotas. In several regions, officials also forced children to help toward the end of the harvest. Teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, and private sector employees were forced to pick cotton under threat of dismissal from work or loss of salary and pension and welfare benefits, and authorities detained and threatened citizens attempting to report on these abuses.
Authorities imprison religious believers who practice their faith outside state controls. Authorities banned shared Muslim iftar breaking of fast meals in public during Ramadan, severely restricted the religious literature, and continued to ban people under 18 from attending mosques. Prison authorities arbitrarily extended the prison term of Sunni religious believer Kamol Odilov in late January, just days before he completed his six-year prison term.
He and his fellow Muslims had met to discuss the works of the late Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi. According to Forum 18, four members of a Sufi Muslim community were imprisoned for four years in Bukhara in June for holding religious meetings at home, as their community does not have state registration. Forced labor of adults and children continues.
Religious literature which is not state-approved, including the Bible , is often confiscated and destroyed. Forum 18 , a human rights organisation based in Norway, has documented raids by Uzbek police in which participants in unregistered religious services were beaten, fined, threatened and intimidated. In August 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.
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Uzbekistan. 3 March | Publisher: United States Department of State | Document type. UZBEKISTAN. 2. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
It is reported that Uzbekistan has been pursuing a policy of forced sterilizations, hysterectomies and IUD insertions since the late s in order to impose population control. Domestic violence against women is a serious problem in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan's "freedom on the net status" is "not free" in the and Freedom on the Net reports from Freedom House. 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.
Facebook was blocked for a few days in Internet censorship in Uzbekistan increased following the events of the Arab Spring in Additional websites are blocked, contributors to online discussion of the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain have been arrested, and news about demonstrations and protest movements have been blocked. The BBC website was unblocked in late , but since January , specific pages dealing with the Arab Spring have been inaccessible. 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. In , the entire country's internet and mobile messaging networks were stopped over a three- to four-hour window for 'urgent repairs' co-inciding almost precisely with national university entry exams.
- Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2013 - Uzbekistan.
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State Department's 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.
U.S. Department of State
Some non-governmental organizations, most notably the Open Society Institute , were not allowed to register with the government, and thus prevented from work in Uzbekistan. In the Uzbek government arrested Sanjar Umarov , 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.
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.
Official Reports
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. Rotar's plane took off from Bishkek , Kyrgyzstan and arrived at Tashkent Airport at 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 Uzbek authorities that escalated following the events in Andijan in May this year.
He should be allowed to contact his organization and a lawyer, and should be released immediately. While police ruled it a robbery, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States called for an investigation.
On 29 April , human rights workers Azam Farmonov and Alisher Karamatov were arrested and allegedly tortured by state security forces. 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.
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
The program said, "On the pretext of financially helping people in need, [missionaries] instill their own teachings in these people's minds. The council is considering ending its observation. Aaron Rhodes , 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? Uzbek police detained Umida Niazova, a human rights activist who worked for local group Veritas and Human Rights Watch in Tashkent , Uzbekistan, on 21 December in the Tashkent airport.
At the border, she was arrested and stood trial on charges of illegally crossing the border, smuggling and distribution of illegal content. On May 1, , 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". Niazova had written news stories about deadly protests in Andijan , Uzbekistan in On May 8, she confessed in court and she was given a suspended sentence [53] and released.
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Nigmatilla Yuldashev Legislative Chamber Chairman: Courts Constitutional Court Chairman: Baxtiyor Mirboboyev Supreme Court Chairman: Presidential Freedom of religion in Uzbekistan. Compulsory sterilization in Uzbekistan. Human rights portal Uzbekistan portal.