Spotlight on Uzbekistan
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Former political prisoners recommend that Uzbek authorities should establish a special commission
consisting of government officials, representatives of non-governmental groups, and international
experts to address the rehabilitation needs of former political prisoners, examine cases of people
still in prison on politically motivated charges, and make recommendations to appropriate
government agencies. It is high time to heed their calls and provide them with the comprehensive
rehabilitation that is their right under Uzbek and international law. As described by legal scholar
Diane Shelton, rehabilitation in Uzbekistan should “achieve maximum physical and psychological
fitness by addressing the individual, the family, local community and even the society as a whole”
and encompass former political prisoners, torture survivors, and “all victims of serious abuse.”
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Article 83 of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Procedure Code and the cases of Chuyan Mamatkulov and Andrei
Kubatin provide a tentative blueprint that Uzbek courts could apply in many cases across the board.
Parliament should also consider adopting a separate Law on Rehabilitation. A fuller examination of
what this rehabilitation law would include, the timeframe and types of victims it would cover, and
comparative international practice will be the subject of a separate scholarly article.
The government should also amend vague and overbroad criminal code provisions relating to
espionage and extremism that are commonly used to criminalise dissent – articles 157, 159, 216,
244-1, and 244-2 of the Criminal Code – and bring them into compliance with Uzbekistan’s
international human rights obligations.
Tashkent should allow independent monitoring of Uzbekistan’s prisons and other places of
detention with the aim of eradicating torture and other forms of ill-treatment and ratify the Optional
Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The protocol creates a monitoring system and requires
that independent entities responsible for such monitoring be able to enter detention facilities at any
time, unannounced. In 2013, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) halted its
monitoring of Uzbekistan’s prison facilities, citing interference by authorities.
Transitional justice in Uzbekistan will only succeed by enabling independent civil society to take a
more active role in advocating and implementing change. This means the Justice Ministry should
remove immediately the many bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented many human rights, media,
and other critically important NGOs from registering and the regulations that have restricted the
activities and operations of local NGOs working on politically-sensitive issues such as torture.
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