On 3 March 2020, the Human Rights Committee concluded its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Uzbekistan on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  The Committee  noted the progress in building a culture of human rights and raised questions about political prisoners, impunity for torture, forced labour in the cotton industry and the efforts to curtail corruption, among other issues.

Since the election of the new President, Uzbekistan had made progress in developing a culture of human rights – it had released political prisoners, prohibited the use of evidence extracted under torture, progressed towards gender equality and adopted exemplary laws on statelessness and asylum.

But no country was a “human rights paradise”, the Experts said and Uzbekistan was not an exception. 

Akmal Saidov, First Vice-President of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) and the Director of the National Human Rights Centre of Uzbekistan, said in the introduction of the report that, after the national consultations, Uzbekistan was ready to adopt the national strategy on human rights.  It had promulgated more than 30 laws to strengthen civil and political rights, including the new law that would grant the citizenship to 50,000 people residing in the country since 1995.

The delegation explained that the President of Uzbekistan had condemned torture and that the criminal code had been brought in line with article 1 of the Convention against Torture.  The latest report of the Transparency International had improved Uzbekistan’ ranking and was an objective assessment of the advances in the fight against corruption.  Fruitful dialogue existed with the World Bank and the International Labour Organization on the issue of forced labour, including in the cotton industry, in which the Government was actively applying labour standards.  Child labour was prohibited and was completely eradicated from cotton harvesting.

Ahmed Amin Fathalla, Committee Chairperson, in his concluding remarks, welcomed the commitment to implement the Committee’s recommendations and urged Uzbekistan to continue to improve the representation of women, which remained weak.

The delegation of Uzbekistan consisted of representatives of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament), National Human Rights Centre, Ministry of Interior, Office of Security Council under the President and the Permanent Mission of Uzbekistan to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Uzbekistan will be issued at the end of the session on 27 March. 

Press-service
The National Center of
the Republic of Uzbekistan
on human rights