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RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Uzbekistan:

* Immediately release rights defenders Ismoil Adylov and Mahbuba Kasymova from prison pending a full and impartial review of the charges against them;

* Review the sentence of Meli Kobilov, a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and ensure that all relevant amnesty provisions are applied. Closely monitor his treatment by prison officials: ensure that they cease to penalize him for unfounded infractions and cease to prevent him from contacting an attorney;

* Ensure that members of human rights organizations are able to exercise their right to freedom of movement and can travel unimpeded both within Uzbekistan, and abroad;

* Return to rights defenders materials confiscated by police, including official identification and other documents, human rights materials, and office and other equipment;

* Register the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan and the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan as nongovernmental organizations, as provided for under Uzbek law;

* Name an independent legal investigative team to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the beating of Mikhail Ardzinov, Tolib Iakubov, Haidbai Iakubov, and Muidin Kurbanov and bring to justice those responsible for ordering and carrying out these attacks;

* Cease immediately all harassment, including intimidating and intrusive surveillance of members of human rights organizations and their families by police and members of the security forces;

* Provide local and international human rights monitors access to all trials and court proceedings;

* Allow local and international human rights monitors full and unimpeded access to places of detention;

* Provide the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) complete and accurate information on detainees, including the dates, legal basis, and circumstances of their arrest, and conditions of detention during all phases of investigations;

* Remove formal and informal restrictions on the domestic press that block coverage of local human rights groups and the human rights issues they document.

To the United Nations Commission on Human Rights:

* Pass a resolution condemning the deterioration of human rights in Uzbekistan and appointing a special rapporteur with a mandate to monitor the situation and report to the next session of the Commission;

* As a follow-up step to the 1998 adoption of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by the General Assembly, establish a mandate of a special rapporteur on human rights defenders.

To the United Nations Development Programme:

* Condition continued financial support of the Uzbek government's National Center for Human Rights on the registration of independent, nongovernmental human rights groups, including the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan and the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan;

* Ensure that this financial assistance program has at its center support for nongovernmental human rights monitoring and advocacy groups, including training and other forms of technical assistance.

To the OSCE:

* Continue to urge the Uzbek government to register local human rights groups;

* Send a strong message to the government of Uzbekistan that all OSCE programmatic activities on all aspects of security are contingent upon clear progress in compliance with human dimension agreements, of which the ability of local human rights monitors to operate is a fundamental part;

* Include representatives of local human rights groups, including unregistered groups, in the semi-regular human rights briefings and in all other pertinent seminars organized by the OSCE Central Asia Liaison Office;

* Closely monitor the ability of unregistered human rights groups to carry out their monitoring activities, and immediately and forcefully protest to the government of Uzbekistan whenever these activities are blocked through violence, harassment, arbitrary arrests, or other means.

To the European Union (E.U.):

* Ensure that the Joint OSCE-E.U. program in support of human rights and democratization has at its center direct support for local, nongovernmental human rights monitoring and advocacy groups;

* Continue to include meetings with representatives of local nongovernmental human rights monitoring and advocacy groups for all high-level delegations visiting Uzbekistan;

* Citing the human rights conditions of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Uzbekistan, which came into force in July 1999, urge the registration of local independent nongovernmental human rights groups as a condition for enhanced relations under the PCA. If no progress in registering groups is achieved, consider suspending the PCA;

* Raise concerns regarding the treatment of independent nongovernmental human rights groups in the context of all intergovernmental consultations carried out pursuant to the PCA;

* Support a resolution at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights condemning the deterioration of human rights in the country and appointing a special rapporteur to monitor the situation and report to the next commission.

To the United States:

* Continue to monitor the status of local nongovernmental human rights organizations, and to press for their registration by the government of Uzbekistan and for their ability to operate unimpeded;

* If there is no progress in registering independent, nongovernmental human rights monitoring groups, or in lifting the criminal penalties imposed on their members for the exercise of their internationally protected human rights, consider finding that the government of Uzbekistan is not making a good-faith effort to improve human rights conditions, and therefore should not be eligible for assistance such as credits granted through the Export-Import Bank or the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), or under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Treaty, all of which require human rights certification;

* If the government of Uzbekistan continues to block foreign travel by representatives of nongovernmental human rights groups, suspend all U.S. government-sponsored visitors' programs for Uzbek government officials' travel to the United States;

* Support a resolution at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights condemning the decline in human rights protection in the country and approving the appointment of a special rapporteur on Uzbekistan to monitor the situation and report to the next commission.

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