On November 15, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a new law targeting “undesirable” foreign citizens and stateless people whose speech or actions are found by Uzbekistan officials to “discredit” the people of Uzbekistan.
The law stipulates that if foreigners or stateless people make “public calls or actions contradicting the state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and also provoke interstate, social, national, racial, and religious discord, discrediting the honor, dignity, and history of the people of Uzbekistan,” they will be added to the list of “undesirable” people and banned from Uzbekistan for up to five years, with the possibility of a five-year extension. They will also be barred from carrying out certain financial transactions in Uzbekistan, such as buying real estate. The overly broad and vaguely worded provisions leave the door open to misinterpretation and misuse by authorities in Uzbekistan.
In early July, 29 human rights organizations called on President Mirziyoyev to veto the law, explaining its provisions violate the right to freedom of expression.
Journalists, researchers, and human rights monitors – who may issue material critical of the Uzbekistan government – could easily fall prey to the provisions in the law, even if their speech is protected under international human rights law. Uzbekistan has already arbitrarily barred activists and rights monitors from entering Uzbekistan and prosecuted individuals on similar vaguely worded provisions.
Laws targeting speech that incites violence, discrimination, and hostility must also respect the fundamental right to free speech. Laws that limit freedom of expression must be narrowly drawn and enforced with restraint so that only speech likely to incite imminent violence or hostility falls foul of them. Uzbekistan’s “undesirables” law misses the mark.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Uzbekistan is keen to portray itself as committed to the United Nation’s core human rights treaties and, Akmal Saidov, a key official in Uzbekistan, was elected as an independent expert to the UN Human Rights Committee. Just a year ago, Uzbekistan expressed its support for over a dozen recommendations made to it concerning freedom of expression and creating favorable working conditions for nongovernmental organizations and rights defenders in Uzbekistan, following the country’s Universal Periodic Review.
If Uzbekistan is serious about following through on these commitments and upholding international human rights standards, lawmakers should immediately suspend the newly adopted “undesirables” law and amend it to bring it into compliance with international law.