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July 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
PiS is seeking to rein in the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a key institution of the Polish judiciary system with broad powers in appointing judges. PiS accommodated the president’s changes in its KRS bill.
There is concern that, upon seizing control of the supreme court, PiS will next try to push through
Critics remain sceptical that serial humans rights abuser Uzbekistan has really reformed
being the 2005 Andijan massacre, when interior ministry and security service troops fired at a crowd of protesters. The official death count was 187, but independent reports claimed more than 1,500 were killed.
But the tide, it seems, has turned since the coming to power of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in September 2016.
Mirziyoyev has moved to make amends for some of the previous president’s actions by releasing many wrongfully imprisoned activists and journalists among others. The list of the released includes Samandar Qoqonov, dubbed "Uzbekistan’s longest-held political prisoner”, and Muhammad Bekjon, a journalist held for nearly 18 years behind bars.
Improvements in media and activist group freedom were noted during United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s historic visit to the country.
“I was particularly struck by yesterday’s meeting with members of civil society. Firstly, the attend-
a constitutionally controversial election law and have an obedient supreme court rubber-stamp a vote cementing the party's rule.
PiS’s plans have had a galvanising effect on the atomised opposition, with the main parties now calling for a “united front” against PiS, focused on finding a way to block the judicial reforms.
ance was high – some 60 people in all (twice as many people as we were expecting) – from differ- ent segments of civil society, including some of those most critical of the authorities,” Zeid said in the statement in May. “Secondly, several partici- pants expressed very forthright opinions, yet there seemed to be little or no anxiety about the pres- ence of numerous TV cameras, including state television,” he added.
Forced labour and child labour was announced as being next on Mirziyoyev's list of priorities
to tackle. His efforts were recognised by the European Parliament, as it approved a textiles trade deal with Uzbekistan last December, ending a five-year stalemate. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) went as far as reporting child labour was officially phased out in the cotton industry.
That, however, was later contradicted by a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in June, which slammed both the ILO and the World Bank for turning a blind eye to the continued use of child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry.
Yet a week later, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Komilov invited HRW back into the country. The welcome news was accompanied by a note from the BBC’s Uzbek Service revealing its plans to reopen its office in Uzbekistan after getting kicked out of the country in 2005. Uzbekistan’s willingness to engage would seem like a sign of a commitment to fix its human rights issues.