Category Archives: Human Rights
Uzbekistan bans Halloween
Celebration of Halloween, a holiday of masks and costumes, which has become quite popular in Uzbekistan during the past five years, is banned by Uzbek authorities.
This holiday, which is not widely celebrated in Uzbekistan, was not officially banned.
“Fiery Hearts Club” urges not to participate in the projects of dictator’s daughter
Media reported that the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu agreed to play a role in the film scripted by Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov.
It may seem there is nothing extraordinary here; artists, actors, as professional players in the world of show business, have a right to try their talents, and make for living.
However, we must remind Mr.Depardieu that political system in Uzbekistan is one of the most violent regimes in the world.
Written complaints of prisoner Agzam Turgunov are also staying behind the bars
Prominent Uzbek human rights activist Agzam Turgunov, serving for four years in prison, complains that his rights are being grossly violated.
Prisoner from the “black list”
Human rights activist Agzam Turgunov considers his detention unlawful and complains that his written complaints about reviewing his case sent to Ombudsman, who is a responsible person for human rights under Parliament of the Republic of Uzbekistan, to the Prosecutor General and the country’s Supreme Court, are staying within jail. This was reported by Mutabar Tajibaeva, the head of the International Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”.
Lene Wetteland: Most Uzbeks cannot get asylum in Norway
On October 15, Oslo hosted a seminar entitled “Uzbekistan – behind closed gates”, which was dedicated to problems of human rights in Uzbekistan.
The event was organized by Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Norwegian Organization of asylum seekers.
Participants discussed issues of compliance with the freedom of speech, religion and belief in Uzbekistan, as well as other significant problems related to human rights in the country.
Film director Nick Powell morally supports dictatorship in Uzbekistan
On October 24, the Uzbek service of BBC published on its website an interview with Mr. Nik Powell, director of the National Film and Television School in the United Kingdom. Recently, Tashkent hosted a Film Festival “Golden Cheetah”, and Mr. Nik Powell headed its jury.
The film festival was organized by the “Fund Forum,” led by Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of President Islam Karimov.
Money transfers are being tightly controlled
Authorities in Uzbekistan started to tightly control the financial flows coming to country via transfer services like Contact, Migom, Western Union, Money Gram, Unistream and Solotaya Korona.
Starting September 15 of this year all money transfers coming to Uzbekistan from foreign countries, regardless its amount, will be thoroughly checked.
Uzbekistan: Two human rights activists released
Human rights activist Uktam Pardaev and opposition member Fakhriddin Tillaev returned home after having spent 15 days in prison.
Uktam Pardaev, head of the Jizzakh branch of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, was released on October 17 after 15 days of detention.
Domestic violence is a reason many Tajik women are committing suicide
Domestic violence against women remains a serious problem in Tajikistan. Despite this, the Tajik parliament still hasn’t discussed the bill “About fighting against domestic violence”.
According to non-governmental organizations struggling to protect rights of women and children in Tajik society, the past nine months of 2012 registered more cases of domestic violence in comparison to the same period of the previous year.
The adoption of news laws does not change human rights situation in Uzbekistan
It is well known that the human rights situation in Uzbekistan remains permanently critical. The task of human rights activists is not in attempting to avoid repetition of the already mentioned positions, but in stating of facts about the real situation and current trends.
Thus, during my speech, I’ll probably repeat points and positions that were mentioned by me and other human rights activists. Also, I will try to briefly analyze the behavior of the authorities and their response to criticism related to human rights.
Kazakhstan: Conflicting statements on Kozlov’s case
Conviction of Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered opposition party “Alga”, for seven and a half years has caused contradictory statements form West and Kazakh authorities.
Initially, the U.S. Embassy in Astana has expressed concern with sentencing of the Kazakh opposition leader and stated that the Kazakh government is using the criminal case to suppress the voice of the opposition in the country.
