Mutabar Tadjibayeva, one of Uzbekistan’s best known human rights defenders, has filed an important complaint against Uzbekistan for her brutal torture and forced sterilisation when she was serving an eight-year prison sentence for her human rights activities in 2005-2008.

International human rights organisations FIDH and REDRESS recently filed the complaint on her behalf before the UN Human Rights Committee, one of the main UN bodies that monitor states’ compliance with their human rights obligations. This is the first known case before the Committee involving an Uzbek human rights defender being forcibly sterilised.

Student movement «Fiery Hearts» was established in January 2012 in order to unite young people who are not indifferent to the problems of human rights violations.

We organized our first protest on January 30, 2012 to recall the European society and its leaders all the human rights problems in Uzbekistan.

We chose this day also because it is the birthday of the countries leader Islam Karimov, who we believe is responsible for most of them.

On October 12, number of Swedish and Russian media, as well as online publications focusing on Uzbekistan, reported that the Russian law enforcement agencies arrested Yuri Zhukovsky, a suspect and wanted in connection with the murder attempt of the famous Uzbek imam Obidkhon Nazarov. 34-year-old Yuri Zhukovsky, presumably a native of Uzbekistan, had a double (Uzbek and Russian) citizenship.

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.

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.

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.

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.