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Benchmarks
for Progress in Human Rights that the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD) Should Set for the Uzbek Government to Fulfill Before the
2003 Annual Meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
May
16, 2002
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Related Material
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
An interactive guide
Uzbekistan: Concern about EBRD Decision on Tashkent
HRW Press Release, May 16, 2002
Open Letter to EBRD President Jean Lemierre
May 16, 2002
Next Year in Tashkent?
Editorial, May 17, 2002
U.N. Criticizes Uzbekistan for Torture
HRW Press Release, May 13, 2002
Human Rights Watch Memorandum to the U.N. Committee against Torture
April 12, 2002
"And It Was Hell All Over Again...": Torture in Uzbekistan
HRW Report, December 2000
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The EBRD will hold its 2003 annual meeting in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, a country with an atrocious human rights record that makes it a
poor symbol for the Bank’s commitment to “fundamental principles of multiparty
democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and market economics.” On May
16, 2002, more than fifty nongovernmental organizations from twenty-four of the
EBRD shareholder countries sent a letter to EBRD President Jean Lemierre,
calling for the Bank to insist on concrete progress in human rights before next
year’s annual meeting.
In the decade since joining the EBRD, Uzbekistan’s
transition from communism has produced a government profoundly hostile to human
rights. It keeps tight control over all media and other forms of expression,
and harasses and imprisons human rights advocates and dissidents. There are no
independent political parties or social movements, and since the end of the
Soviet era there has not been a single election that the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe found to be free or fair. The government
continues to press forward with a campaign of unlawful arrest, torture, and
imprisonment of Muslims who practice their faith outside state controls or who
belong to unregistered religious organizations. Torture remains rampant in
police precincts and prisons. In the past year alone, at least seven people
have died in police custody allegedly due to torture.
Without significant progress in human rights, it would be
counterproductive to the Bank’s founding principles to hold the meeting in
Tashkent. The government would be left to use the prestige attached to holding
such a meeting as an endorsement of its repressive policies. The Bank should
set the following benchmarks as minimum requirements for progress in human
rights, and use the upcoming year to press the Uzbek government to fulfill
them:
The registration and
unfettered operation of opposition parties, human rights and other civil
society groups: 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.
Genuine legal reform, including the introduction of judicial review of
detentions; the repeal of the provisions in the Law on Freedom of Conscience
and Religious Organizations that criminalize certain religious literature and
affiliations; and the introduction of penalties for the use as evidence of
confessions coerced under torture.
Access to Uzbekistan
for 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: Elections in Uzbekistan are empty exercises. Eight
years after Uzbekistan joined the EBRD, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe refused to send observers to the 1999 parliamentary
elections because they were neither free nor fair. Instead, they featured five
pro-government parties that voiced no disagreement with government policies;
even President Karimov admitted that he could not tell the difference between
them. 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 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 functioning of a
free media: Soviet-style
pre-publication censorship keeps tight control over the media. Criticism of
government policy, corruption, waste, unemployment, the crackdown against
independent Islam, and other topics is not tolerated. Those who print or
distribute unsanctioned newspapers or bulletins are subject to heavy criminal
penalties.
An end to the
persecution of independent Muslims, their families and those who advocate on
their behalf: The government has
harassed and jailed thousands of people for practicing Islam beyond the
confines of government-regulated religious institutions, and 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. Government security
services have also detained and harassed the family members of those accused,
sometimes subjecting them to Stalin-type hate rallies to ostracize them from
their communities.
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