It is expected that on October 16 Abdulaziz Kamilov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, visits Paris to meet with his French counterpart Mr. Laurent Fabius. The open media has not yet announced the agenda of the minister’s meeting.

Given that, the International human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” calls upon the government of France to raise the issue with human rights in Uzbekistan during the upcoming talks. We view France as one of the world’s leading democracies, one of the world’s cradles of ideas and traditions of human rights and democracy.

We have been observing the steadily worsening of the situation with human rights and democratic reforms in Uzbekistan in recent years. The persecution of civil society activists, including human rights defenders, is still continuing. The number of arbitrary arrests on religious and political grounds is also not decreasing.

Several thousands of political prisoners are tormented in jails. The political system of Uzbekistan ignores competitive pluralism, principles and mechanisms of separation of powers, and for over two decades one man and his family have monopolized the power.

Unfortunately, Uzbekistan has become one of the most brutal autocracies of the modern world, where the will of society has no role, and illegitimate violence, established at the state level, keeps people in constant fear and hopelessness.

We urge the government of France to raise issues of human rights in Uzbekistan during the meeting between two ministers, in the tone that reflects the complex situation in Uzbekistan.

We understand that France is more concerned with issues of security and geopolitics in Central Asia. However, we believe that there is a logical connection between security, stability and human rights and democracy.

We hope that the Foreign Minister of France will find ways to convey to the Uzbek part its principled position on human rights in Uzbekistan, and that human rights issues are not of lesser importance in French foreign policy.

International human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” will closely monitor the progress of talks between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan and France.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of the International Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”.