[Tashkent, 10 December] – Today, on International Human Rights Day, the Centre for Public Administration of the Ulster University releases a new in-depth report, A False Sense of Legality: Compulsory Property Seizure, Land Grabbing And Forced Eviction In Uzbekistan, with research contributions from Land Home Justice and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights. The paper documents systematic human rights abuses generated by President Mirziyoyev government’s rapid urban and rural development drive since 2016. The report uncovers how illegal government decrees, abuse of power and a compromised judicial system enable large-scale forced evictions and land grabbing, in violation of constitutionally protected private property rights and internationally enshrined human rights.

Investments to reconstruct Uzbekistan’s cities and modernise its agriculture sector have come at a heavy price for thousands of citizens, who face the destruction of their homes, communities, and livelihoods. This illicit activity is organised through government decrees and associated court decisions, which violate both national and international laws. The widespread illegal seizure of land and houses for private development and private profit signifies a breakdown in the rule of law and has become one of Uzbekistan’s most urgent human rights and sustainable development issues today.

The report is based on six years of investigative research including over 100 interviews, trial monitoring, and extensive documentary research. The investigation exposes forced evictions in 11 urban development projects in Tashkent and Samarkand. It also examines mass land confiscations from farmers in 15 districts across six regions of Uzbekistan. Five case studies are examined in depth. Among the cases documented, key findings include:

  • Abuse of power: Government officials issued illegal decrees or otherwise abused their authority to seize private homes and farmland, transferring them to corporate developers for urban redevelopment projects and agricultural businesses (including cotton producing companies).
  • Court failures: Courts consistently failed to protect people’s legal rights, arbitrarily deciding in favour of officials and companies, allowing illegal land confiscations and forced evictions to continue unchecked.
  • Private commercial interests: Privately owned homes and farmland leased by the state were confiscated for the benefit of private commercial interests, violating constitutional and legislative property rights protections.
  • Intimidation and coercion: Homeowners were coerced or intimidated by state or corporate developers into giving up their properties and many victims argue they received inadequate compensation. Farmers, the study found, were forced to sign “voluntary” land lease terminations under threat of penalty, without compensation for loss of land and livelihood.
  • Human rights impact: Forced evictions and land grabs cause severe mental and physical distress, precarious living conditions, the loss of rural livelihoods, and in some cases homelessness. Denial of the right to housing, property and land violates a range of human rights and particularly impacts vulnerable groups including lower-income families with children and older people.

“It is clear that private property rights enshrined in the constitution and the law are not enjoyed by homeowners. These rights are taken away arbitrarily by the state through illegal decrees, while the courts often engage in what can only be described as legal acrobatics in order to side with the state and developers”, said a civil rights activist, a lawyer. “We have seen elderly people, vulnerable children and their families, intimidated and coerced, as they are forced to navigate a Kafkaesque bureaucratic and court system, where they are destined to lose their constitutionally enshrined fundamental rights”, they add.

“The mass redistribution of agricultural land that began in 2019 has resulted in the loss of livelihoods of thousands of farmers and farm workers, some of whom have been forced into low-wage, insecure employment with private companies (also known as clusters), to which some of the seized land has been transferred. Others have been forced to leave the country, joining the ranks of millions of migrant workers abroad,“ said Umida Niyazova, director of Uzbek Forum for Human Rights. “Rural development projects must mitigate against harm and provide compensation for any damage done. In Uzbekistan, farmers and farm workers are bearing the brunt of reforms to develop the rural economy.“

The research underscores the pressing need for reforms to prevent further violations, address the consequences of illegal land and home seizures, ensure secure tenure and uphold the rule of law. The report calls for:

1) An immediate halt to compulsory acquisition of homes and land for private commercial interests.

2) A comprehensive reform program for human rights compliant laws, policies and practices on land and property expropriation.

3) Distribution of justice: legal measures against culpable state agents, illegal constructions and certain remedies for victims.

4) International financial institutions and other international stakeholders that play a critical role in urbanisation and rural development to carry out strengthened due diligence, prioritising housing and land rights in their national strategies. These actions would help foster more inclusive, sustainable development in the country, guaranteeing people are safe and secure in their own homes and livelihoods.

Key references

About the authors:

The Centre for Public Administration is a leading international research institute, recognised for its local as well as global impact in policy and public administration.

Land Home Justice is a network of independent experts and civil rights activists jointly investigating and documenting compulsory acquisition of land and homes for urban redevelopment projects in Uzbekistan.

Uzbek Forum for Human Rights is a Berlin-based non-governmental organisation dedicated to defending human rights and strengthening civil society in Uzbekistan.

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