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58 Opinion bne August 2023 Uzbek human rights progressing,
but more work to do Ben Aris in Tashkent
Uzbekistan has long had a poor human rights image, but as part of the wide-ranging reforms introduced by Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, improving the country’s human rights record and image is part of his agenda. A lot of progress has been made, but much work still needs to be done.
“Since President Mirziyoyev assumed power as interim president in September 2016, a major agenda of reforms
has been introduced in Uzbekistan. In this broader agenda, judicial and governance reform has been identified as key to the entire reform process. The scope and speed of reforms outlined in this study are bold and unprecedented,” Silk Road Studies said in a report on Uzbek human rights.
Silk Road Studies concludes that while Uzbekistan has suffered a poor press, including an accusation by former UK ambassador Craig Murry that prisoners were boiled to death, actually many reforms began circa 2005, although progress was very slow over the next decade. Since Mirziyoyev came to power they have accelerated dramatically.
“We have opened the border to 90 countries and have a visa-free regime. The work we have done on improving human rights has seen Uzbekistan ratings with all the major international organisations rising,” said Akmal Saidov, first deputy speaker of the Oliy Majlis, who is responsible for Human Rights. “It shows that Uzbekistan is becoming an increasingly open and free society.”
The most obvious success to date has been the end of child labour to bring in the cotton harvest. Uzbekistan was widely condemned for press-ganging young people into working in the cotton fields each year and its cotton was under sanction as a result. However, the practice has been abandoned and those sanctions were lifted in March 2022.
However, the repression of the Karimov-era has been
steadily rolled back over the last seven years. Restrictions on international press operating in Uzbekistan were removed and correspondents welcomed back. Many political prisoners were released and the worst excesses of the police curbed.
A comprehensive judicial reform was launched as early
as October 2016 to strengthen the protection of rights and freedoms and was followed up by a more comprehensive legal system reform decree in 2017.
After being elected president in January 2017, Mirziyoyev
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announced a comprehensive “Five Point Development Strategy Plan” outlining policy priorities for a five-year period. This plan focused on: improving the system of state and social construction; strengthening the rule of law and the judicial system; developing and liberalising the economy; developing the social sphere, and improving security and implementing a balanced foreign policy
Legal reforms have further been bolstered by beefing up the rule of law and transparency rules for the judicial system in the recent changes to the constitution. Mirziyoyev's judicial reforms are built on a major effort at the Ministry of Justice in 2014-15 in the Karimov administration to improve the rule of law, but Mirziyoyev pushed this effort forward.
One of his major achievements was to overhaul the General Prosecutors office by appointing a new younger liberal head and his office has been populated with a new generation of younger, more progressive executives, amongst other things.
“The generational factor was important in this process: younger officials, often with foreign education, had begun
Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is building his reforms on improving the life of his citizens and human rights is a key element of that. Progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go.