On February 17, 2026, the Akaltyn District Criminal Court in Syrdarya region fined three local residents for violating an article of the Uzbek Administrative Code, finding them guilty of breaching the procedure for organizing rallies and demonstrations. Each of them must pay approximately $1,000 to the state, a huge sum by Uzbek standards.
According to the court’s decision, the three residents of Syrdarya, two of whom are persons with first and second-degree disabilities, lost their homes as a result of the catastrophic dam collapse in May 2020 in the neighboring Sardoba district and have been trying for the past six years to obtain compensation for their destroyed homes. The collapse of the dam resulted in the evacuation of approximately 70,000 people, many of whom lost their homes and livelihoods.
On February 10, 2026, the three flood victims traveled to Tashkent to submit complaints to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the allocation of the promised housing. According to their testimony in court, upon arriving at the reception office of the Cabinet of Ministers, they met with Tashkent-based human rights activist Elena Urlaeva who suggested that they take their complaints to the Prosecutor General’s Office. On the way there, they stopped near the U.S. Embassy building and stood by the roadside holding posters demanding compensation for their housing.
After they had stood peacefully with their posters for “some time,” police arrived and took all of them to the police station, where a report was drawn up under Article 201, Part 1 of the Administrative Code, “violation of the procedure for organizing and holding meetings, rallies, street marches, or demonstrations.” Judge E. Berkinov of the Akaltyn District Criminal Court found all three defendants guilty.
Following the dam collapse on May 1, 2020, it was reported that the Uzbek government had allocated $100 million to restore infrastructure and housing for those affected. According to official data, each affected family was to receive 40 million soums (approximately $3,900 at the time).
Nearly six years later, not all flood victims have received compensation and some continue to appeal to government agencies in an effort to obtain the housing promised to them.
A Constitutional Right With No Clear Legal Framework
The Constitution of Uzbekistan, adopted in May 2023, declares the right of citizens “to engage in public activities in the form of rallies, meetings, and demonstrations in accordance with the laws of Uzbekistan. The authorities have the right to suspend or prohibit these events “only for justified security reasons.”
In August 2020, a draft law on rallies, meetings, and demonstrations prepared by the Uzbek Ministry of Internal Affairs was submitted for discussion. The draft provided for obtaining permission to organize rallies, the procedure for preliminary campaigning, the rights and obligations of participants, and defined the grounds and procedure for banning public events.
In December 2022, when asked what legislative norms regulate the holding of rallies and meetings, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shohruh Giyasov, replied that the procedure for organizing rallies and demonstrations is regulated by Article 33 of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, Article 202 of the Criminal Code, and Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 205 “On measures to further improve the procedure for organizing and holding mass events.”
“The procedure for holding rallies is regulated by rules that are defined in more than 100 regulatory documents aimed at ensuring state and public security. In order to summarize these norms, the government has developed a separate bill. It will be submitted for public discussion in the near future,” said Giyasov in December 2022.
More than three years later, a separate law that clearly regulates the organization of public rallies and assemblies has still not been adopted. As a result, virtually any peaceful gathering can be interpreted as a violation of the procedure for holding assemblies.
In December 2022, several workers at a gypsum factory in Fergana were found guilty of the same violation and sentenced to 5–10 days of administrative detention for gathering near the factory and telling blogger Olimjon Haydarov on camera that they were out of work due to a gas shutdown. Olimjon Haydarov, who published a video of the workers’ protest in Fergana, was also found guilty of conspiring with the workers and was fined 21 million soums ($1,700).
