Page 59 - bne_August 2023_20230802

bne August 2023
Opinion 59
to rise through the ranks and take on greater responsibili- ties,” Silk Road Studies reports. “The main legislative role in co-ordinating reforms was assigned to the Ministry of Justice, now staffed by an entirely new set of young officials... Many talented young officials have been promoted to respon-
sible posts, including as ministers and deputy ministers.
In addition, a position of State Adviser on Youth [Alisher Sadulleyev, who is only 26 and the youngest Senator ever
to be appointed] has been added to the President’s Cabinet. The inclusion of the younger generation led the administra- tion to begin to pulse with new ideas.”
Saidov highlights the recent amendments to the 1992 constitution where several rights were enshrined in basic law. Child labour has been outlawed and those with disabilities protected.
“This is a “social constitution” that now includes things like property rights, legal guarantees and an expanded chapter to better promote and protect civil society,” said Saidov.
In the old administration the police frequently abused their powers or were used as a tool of oppression by the powers that be, but the control over the authorities has been tightened by the judicial reforms and the updated constitution.
But much work still needs to be done. The most recent US human rights report for 2022 on Uzbekistan was very critical, and the Amnesty International report for the same year only slightly less so. The US gave a long shopping list of problems that includes: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; and more.
Whereas these and similar repression issues have long been a problem in Uzbekistan, since Mirziyoyev took over they have clearly been on the decline as he has ushered in a much more open administration that relies on genuine popular support, rather than Karimov’s repressive methods. For example, Mirziyoyev has ordered the local governments and Supreme Court to publish all their decisions online to improve transparency and improve the accountability of government, yet the US report makes no mention of the change in the climate in the country.
Political reforms
Part of the challenge is that while Mirziyoyev has made enormous progress in many economic, health and education reforms, he has left many of the political reforms untouched.
The most obvious example was the October 2021 presidential election, where President Mirziyoyev won re-election with 80.2% of the total votes.
“A genuine choice of political alternatives was not available to voters because true opposition candidates were unable to register or run for office,” the US report said. The
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that “while election day was peaceful, significant irregularities were observed and important safeguards were often disregarded during voting, counting and tabulation.”
The Uzbek opposition parties did not participate in the elections and RFE/RL reports that opposition leaders in the country were harassed by the local security services and prevented from participating.
While OSCE observers that bne IntelliNews talked to one election day in Tashkent said they had not seen any voting abuses and that the government was “clearly interested in learning more about how to run clean elections”, this has yet to be translated into true political reforms.
Gender politics and gay rights
Gay rights is another place where no progress has been made. Sexual relations between men remain illegal and currently 30 men are incarcerated for being gay, according to Amnesty International.
“Gender stereotypes and an emphasis on discriminatory traditional family values and cultural norms continued to significantly hinder progress in the realisation of the rights of women, girls and LGBTI people,” Amnesty said in its report.
In parallel with women’s rights, the new constitution also brought in protections for disabled people, who are typically sidelined and ignored in most Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries with the catch-all term “invalids,” irrespective of the severity or specific nature of their disabilities.
Uzbekistan is right at the beginning of what will be a long journey to accept equal rights for sexual minority groups. The UK sexual offences act that legalised homosexuality was only legislated in 1967 and it took another 47 years until the first gay marriage was celebrated in the UK. Amongst the former Warsaw pact countries, Estonia was the first to allow same-sex marriage last week. As bne IntelliNews has reported, the path of tolerance of gay rights can take 50 years and
three generations and a very clear values fault line divides Europe in two.
The addition of gender equality provisions to protect women and ensure they are equally treated, as well as shielded from violence, is the first step in this very long journey and a good start, as there still many issues to be resolved in women’s rights to solve before much attention will be spent on dealing with sexual minority rights.
“A presidential decree on accelerating “systemic support
of family and women”, which purported to provide for the “protection of rights and legitimate interests of women” [in 2022], instead prioritised family mediation and reconciliation over prosecution in cases of gender-based violence,” Amnesty said in its report.
www.bne.eu