The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should insist on concrete progress in human rights before holding its 2003 annual meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations said in an open letter to the president of the EBRD today.
More than fifty NGOs from twenty-four of the EBRD's shareholder countries sent the letter as the EBRD prepares for this year's annual meeting, which opens on May 19 in Bucharest. The letter calls for the Bank to press the Uzbek government for meaningful improvements in human rights in the year-long lead-up to the 2003 event.
The EBRD's founding agreement embraces "fundamental principles of multiparty democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and market economics."
"Uzbekistan does not deserve the prestige attached to hosting such a meeting," said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "The Uzbek government has a terrible human rights record, and Tashkent is a terrible symbol for the Bank's principles."
In the decade since joining the EBRD, Uzbekistan's transition from communism has produced a government profoundly hostile to human rights. Opposition political parties are banned, and their activists and leaders are exiled, jailed, harassed, or beaten.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe refused to send observers to the 1999 parliamentary elections because they were neither free nor fair. The sole candidate in the 2000 presidential elections permitted to contest the vote was a public supporter of the president's policies and leadership, and was quoted during the campaign as stating that he intended to vote for the incumbent, President Islam Karimov. On January 27 this year, while hosting a high-level delegation of U.S. officials visiting Tashkent, President Karimov had his term in office extended until 2007 through a referendum that once again made a mockery of the country's democratic process.
The government has harassed and jailed thousands of Muslims for practicing their faith outside state controls, or for their affiliation with unregistered Islamic organizations. Human Rights Watch has documented more than 800 such cases since 1999. The accused are often held in secret detention, tortured, and denied access to counsel.
Torture is rampant throughout the Uzbek criminal justice system. In the past year alone, at least seven people have died in custody allegedly due to torture.
The government keeps tight control over all media and other forms of expression. In recent years, it has harassed and imprisoned several human rights advocates and political dissidents. Civic organizations cannot exist genuinely independent of the government. In March 2002, after five years of repeated requests, the government registered the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, but other groups continue to await registration.
"Holding such a high-level gathering in Tashkent without requiring anything in exchange will send the wrong message to the Uzbek leadership, which will be able to flag it as an endorsement of its repressive policies. The Bank must use this opportunity to seek meaningful reforms from the Uzbek government," said Andersen.
The nongovernmental organizations called on the EBRD to set concrete benchmarks for the Uzbek government to fulfill prior to the 2003 annual meeting. They include:
The registration and unfettered operation of opposition parties, human rights and other civil society groups;
Genuine legal reform, including the introduction of judicial review of detentions;
Access to United Nations human rights monitors, in particular the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders;
National elections that are considered free and fair by domestic and international observers;
The functioning of a free media; and
An end to the persecution of independent Muslims, their families and those who advocate on their behalf.
