UZBEKISTAN

Joint report of the civil society submitted for

Universal Periodic Review

2nd cycle

Association for Human Rights in Central Asia – AHRCA, Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights – UGF and Centre for Civil and Political Rights – CCPR Centre, would like to draw your attention to their joint NGO report on Uzbekistan. In December 2008, during the first review of Uzbekistan, UN member-states made recommendations to the government on the implementation of international treaties in the sphere of human rights. The authors of this report have analysed the implementation of these recommendations by the government of Uzbekistan.

In October 2012, in accordance with the established procedure, the present report was submitted for inclusion in the documents for the second UPR review of Uzbekistan. It focuses on 6 problem areas identified by the UN Human Rights Committee when it considered the report of Uzbekistan on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in March 2010. The report examines the current situation with regard to each of these areas and then provides a number of recommendations drafted by the human rights defenders under each heading. The parts of the Report are as follows:

I. Prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment;

II. Forced labour and child labour;

III. Independence of judicial power, the right to fair trial, arbitrary arrest and detention;

IV. Freedom of expression and freedom of opinion: persecution of human rights defenders, non-governmental organisations and journalists;

V. Freedom of conscience: illegal religious groups and “extremists”;

VI. The situation of Andijan survivors and repatriates.

On 25-28 March 2013 in Geneva, within the framework of the UPR process, pre-sessional meetings will take place between representatives of the civil society and government delegations to discuss the human rights situation in Uzbekistan. The authors of the present report have been given the opportunity to participate in these meetings and present their concerns and recommendations to the government delegations who will take part in the review of Uzbekistan on Wednesday 24 April.