Uzbek human rights defender Mutabar Tadjibayeva wins UN ruling
In a landmark case, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has ruled in favour of human rights defender Ms Mutabar Tadjibayeva, who was arrested, tortured, raped and forcedly sterilised by Uzbek authorities.
On 6 October 2015, the Committee – after determining that there was detailed evidence of the abuses she suffered – ruled that Uzbekistan is obligated to conduct an impartial investigation, to begin criminal proceedings against those responsible for the violations, and to offer compensation to Tabjibayeva.
Mutabar Tadjibayeva is the Chairwoman of the human rights organisation Fiery Hearts Club, originally based in Ferghana, eastern Uzbekistan, and is one of the founders of the national movement Civil Society.
After spending three years in prison from 2005 to 2008, Tadjibaeva was banned from her country. Since her release, she has been living in France, where she was granted political asylum. Tadjibayeva is also a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and, in 2008, while she was still in prison, she won the 2008 Martin Ennals Award.
Both at home and in exile, Tadjibayeva has monitored, reported and publicly denounced human rights violations, as well as investigated drug trafficking and corruption scandals in her country. Because of her brave work in defence of human rights, Tadjibayeva has repeatedly suffered abuses and persecutions. In 2002 she was arbitrarily arrested for several days. In April 2005 she was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and gang-raped by plain-clothes policemen. One month later, she was arrested again and detained for three days and denied access to a lawyer.
On 8 October 2005, Tadjibayeva was due to attend the Dublin Platform, an international gathering of human rights defenders hosted by Front Line Defenders. On her way to Ireland, she was detained at the airport and held in preventive detention. On 6 March 2006 she was sentenced to eight years in prison, accused of having engaged in illegal activities and propaganda against the State. She was then moved to a psychiatric hospital, where her physical and mental health rapidly deteriorated.
During her time in prison, Tadjibayeva was repeatedly tortured. She was held for more than 100 days in solitary confinement and forcibly sterilized.
In 2012, supported by human rights organisations FIDH, Redress and Fiery Hearts Club, Tadjibayeva filed a complaint with the UNHRC, reporting the abuses she suffered from 2002 to 2009. When asked to respond to these claims, the Uzbek authorities accused the human rights defender of having presented “invented and biased” allegations.
On 6 October 2015, the UNHRC determined there was accurate evidence to support Tadjibayeva’s claims and confirmed that the abuses committed by the authorities constitute a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty that Uzbekistan ratified in 1995. Following the UNHRC ruling, the Uzbek government is now obliged to investigate Tadjibayeva’s case and take steps to “prevent similar violations occurring in the future.”
“The recent decision by the UN Human Right committee to rule in favour of Uzbek human rights defender Mutabar Tadjibayeva is a victory not only for her, but also for all the other human rights defenders in the country”, said Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of Front Line Defenders. “This ruling vindicates her struggle for human rights, in a country where most human rights defenders are either in jail or in exile. This ruling sends a message to president Islam Karimov that he can and will be held to account for the systematic abuse of human rights in Uzbekistan”.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the UNHRC ruling, but expresses its concern at the ongoing harassment, persecution and arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders in Uzbekistan. Front Line Defenders also urges the authorities in Uzbekistan to carry out an immediate and transparent investigation into Mutabar Tadjibayeva’s case.
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