Human Rights Watch is calling for the appointment of a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Uzbekistan.

Throughout the past nine years, violations of fundamental human rights in that country have not waned, as many had hoped after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, but increased dramatically. Since late 1997 in particular, political repression developed into a crisis, characterized by mass arbitrary arrests of those perceived to oppose the government. The year 1999 saw a drastic escalation of these arrests, in the aftermath of the bombing of several government buildings in the capital, Tashkent. While the government has used the bombing to justify its brutal crackdown, in fact its response has further exacerbated social tensions. Fear of arbitrary arrest has forced hundreds, perhaps thousands to flee the country, and given rise to an armed opposition movement operating beyond Uzbekistan's borders.

We believe that unless the international community takes meaningful action now to persuade Uzbekistan to respect the fundamental human rights of its citizens, even more serious outbreaks of violence than those witnessed in 1999 are possible. Uzbekistan now risks not only armed incursions by exiled dissident groups, but conflict with its neighbors in the region as well. Under the guise of protecting its borders against armed militants, Uzbekistan has recently established border control posts in territory claimed by its neighbors Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Its actions have contributed to increasing tension with neighbor states, as the Uzbek security forces have apparently been given carte blanche to extend their reach into neighboring states.

Summary of abuses

Uzbekistan, while a party to all major international human rights conventions, violates its citizens' fundamental human rights:

• Uzbekistan denies its citizens basic freedom of conscience. Through its May 1998 Law on Religion it has criminalized all religious activity not licensed and monitored by the state. It has used this law to close up to 80% of mosques created since 1991, and to arrest suspected followers of religious teachers it deems a danger to the state. All those who evade these controls risk arrest on ill-defined charges of "extremism." Human rights groups have documented thousands of such arrests, which are clearly discriminatory, and based on evidence of piety such as regular attendance at suspect mosques, individual prayer, or non-state licensed Koranic study alone or in groups.
• Citizens of Uzbekistan cannot exercise basic political rights. All parties in opposition to the government have been effectively banned, their members jailed, disappeared, or exiled. Citizens had little opportunity during recent elections for president (January 2000) and for the legislative assembly (December, 1999) to express their grievances. International monitoring organizations dismissed the elections for their failure to allow participation by any candidates not in support of the current government.
• Freedom of speech and association are non-existent. The state controls and censors all forms of the mass media, including privately-owned broadcast stations and news agencies. Through the security apparatus and laws restricting the registration of non-governmental organizations, the state effectively blocks the activities of civic groups.
• Uzbekistan routinely ignores its citizens' due process rights. Arrests are often carried out without prosecutorial sanction. Police often plant evidence that forms the basis for initial charges against detainees: small amounts of narcotics, ammunition, or increasingly, banned religious literature, or a combination of these. From beginning to end, the right to a fair hearing is violated, with accused persons often deprived of the right to counsel, held in incommunicado detention, and tortured. Being accused is usually tantamount to being convicted, as the presumption of innocence is entirely lacking.
• Torture is a growing problem in pre-trial detention. Though Uzbek laws forbid it, courts routinely rely on confessions or denunciations extracted under torture as evidence to convict suspects. There are increasing reports of deaths in detention, particularly of persons arrested for religious and political offenses. There is no effective recourse for victims of torture, and the perpetrators are held to account in extremely rare cases.
• The most chilling evidence of Uzbekistan's deepening human rights crisis are attacks on local human rights activists, who increasingly face the same fate as those they attempt to defend. In 1999 the state sentenced two members of the unregistered Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan to five- and six-year prison terms; both were convicted on the basis of banned religious leaflets which, according to witnesses, were planted by the police.

Why a Special Rapporteur on Uzbekistan?

The scope of human rights violations in that country requires a broader approach than any single thematic mechanism can provide. Existing U.N. human rights mechanisms have not yet brought about a substantive response from Uzbekistan. A report submitted by the government of Uzbekistan to the U.N. Committee Against Torture in November of last year neither fully acknowledged the problem of torture nor contained any significant steps to remedy it. Uzbekistan has been reviewed under the 1503 mechanism in 1996/7, but as has been shown above, its failure to respect fundamental rights has only grown more egregious since then.

The intransigent and deepening human rights crisis in Uzbekistan, and the threat this crisis presents to regional stability, requires the continual, focused attention of a Special Rapporteur. Uzbekistan has steadfastly refused to grant international monitors access to its prisons and other places of detention; increasingly, it has blocked attendance at trials by international monitors in the country. It has ignored requests to provide information on the number and identity of those detained for religious and political offenses.

It is our hope that by appointing a Special Rapporteur on Uzbekistan, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights can begin to address and ameliorate this crisis. First of all, a Special Rapporteur could request that Uzbekistan provide information about arrests that the government has heretofore been unwilling to give. Second, the Rapporteur could also press for access to prisons, places of detention and trials. Third, a Rapporteur could advise the government on necessary steps to be taken to hold human rights violators accountable. Lastly, the appointment of a Special Rapporteur will communicate clearly the concern and disapproval of the community of states for the massive, ongoing violations of human rights in Uzbekistan.