Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

I. COMMON CORE DOCUMENT

1. GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE STATE SUBMITTING THE REPORT

А. Demographic, economic, social and cultural features of the State

20. The Republic of Uzbekistan is a State situated in Central Asia between the two largest rivers of the region, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. It borders Kazakhstan to the north and north-east, Turkmenistan to the south-west, Afghanistan to the south, Tajikistan to the south-east and Kyrgyzstan to the north-east. Approximately four fifths of Uzbekistan is made up of desert plains, and the eastern and south-eastern regions of the country include hills and foothills of the Tien Shan and the Gissar range. Within the Turan Plate lie the Ustyurt plateau, the Amu Darya delta on the southern shore of the Aral Sea and the enormous Kyzylkum desert. Uzbekistan’s climate is extreme continental.

21. Uzbekistan has a total area of 447,400 square kilometers. The Republic comprises the Republic of Karakalpakstan, 12 viloyats (oblasts) and the city of Tashkent, 121 towns and 163 rural rayons. It has a population of 26 million, and its capital is the city of Tashkent.
Historical background
22. The first bits of historical information about the population of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, date to the middle of the first millennium before Christ [BC]. In the sixth century BC, Central Asia was under the rule of the Persian dynasty of Achaemenid; in the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid dynasty. After that, all or part of Uzbekistan belonged to a series of large ancient States: to the successors of Alexander the Great, the Seleucids (fourth and third centuries BC); the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (third and second centuries BC); and the powerful middle-India Kushan Kingdom (first century BC to fourth century AD).

23. The formation of the Uzbek ethos, which has Turkic roots and is a titular nation, was influenced by various cultures and civilizations. The historical development of the Uzbeks took place in conditions of close contact and intermingling with Iranian peoples and culture.

24. In the eighth century, Central Asia, including the area occupied by Uzbekistan, was conquered by Arabs and was added to the possessions of the Arab Caliphate. The conquest was accompanied by the introduction of Islam. The new religion spread rapidly among the populace, although the people held on to some of Zoroastroism and certain other religions (Buddhism, Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity). The spread of Islam resulted in that region becoming an area of Islamic civilization.

25. In the late ninth century, the reign of the Arabs was replaced by the rule of local dynasties. In the ninth through twelfth centuries, the states of the Samanids, the Karakhanids and the Seldzhukids existed in the territory of Uzbekistan..

26. In the early thirteenth century, Central Asia (along with Azerbaijan and Iran) belonged for a short period of time to the State of the Shahs of Khorezm, which ceased to exist after the attack of the hordes of Genghis Khan. Soon after, power shifted to the dynasty of the Temurids. That was the time of peak economic development and the flowering of the culture (the second half of the fourteenth century and the fifteenth century). Samarkand was the capital of the State of Amir Temur. The State of the Temurids in the Middle Ages consolidated an enormous territory, having created a unified legal and economic space. That epoch and the absolute monarchy that came about at the time may be regarded as the basis for the formation of the nationhood of Uzbekistan.

27. At the transition from the fifteenth century to the sixteenth century, the State of the Temurids was replaced by the State of the Shaybanids, who ruled through the sixteenth century. For nearly four centuries, from the sixteenth to the conquest of Central Asia by Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century, the territory of Uzbekistan was home to three Uzbek khanates: the Bukhara Khanate (an emirate beginning in the mid-eighteenth century), the Khivin Khanate and the Kokand Khanate.

28. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a large part of Central Asia, including modern Uzbekistan, was annexed to Russia. The Governorate-General of Turkestan was created.

29. After the revolution in Russia, in 1920, the Bukhara and Khorezm people’s soviet republics were formed..

30. In 1924, the national-state delimitation of Central Asia was effected. The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was formed on 27 October 1924. In the national delimitation, territories populated primarily by Uzbeks were included in the Uzbek SSR. The republic housed 82 per cent of the total number of Uzbeks living in the USSR; they constituted 76% of the total population of the newly formed republic. Uzbekistan was part of the USSR for nearly 70 years, and the features of its demographic and socio-economic development were influenced by the processes characteristic of the Soviet Union.

31. The date 1 September 1991 represented a crucial moment in the history of the country, when Uzbekistan declared its independent statehood. On 31 August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Uzbekistan had adopted a resolution on the declaration of the independent statehood of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the Constitutional law on the principles of the independent statehood of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Population
32. Most of the population (more than 21 million) consists of Uzbeks, a Turkic-speaking people with an ancient, distinctive culture. Also living in the republic are a considerable number of representatives of other peoples: Kazakhs, Tajiks, Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Armenians, Koreans, Uighurs, etc.

33. In anthropological terms, Uzbeks are a people of mixed origin, including both Europeid and Mongoloid components. Anthropologists classify Uzbeks as southern Europeids of the Central Asian Mesopotamian type. The Uzbek population of cities and ancient agricultural oases has a comparatively small mixture of Mongoloid features.

34. The State language in the Republic of Uzbekistan is the Uzbek language. The literary Uzbek language belongs to the Karluk group of the western branch of Turkic languages. One of the characteristic features of the Uzbek language is its profound historical link to the Tajik language. The Karakalpak language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages.

35. In terms of religious affiliation, believers among Uzbeks and Karakalpaks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafite branch (school of law). Typical of Islam in Uzbekistan, as in all of Central Asia, is the merging of orthodox Islam and Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, as well as the presence of pre-Islamic beliefs.

Demographic indicators in the Republic of Uzbekistan
Table 1
Permanent population of Republic of Uzbekistan, broken down by sex and age¹

(in persons)

	as of 1 January 2006				as of 1 January 2007
	Both sexes	Men	Women	Both sexes		Men	Women
Total	26,312,688	13,145 068	13,167,620	26,663,823		13,325,604	13,338,219
0-4	2,570,482	1,322,666	1,247,816	2,616,164		1,346,962	1,269,202
5-9	2,759,615	1,414,934	1,344,681	2,643,618		1,354,913	1,288,705
10-14	3,244,610	1,654,319	1,590,291	3,176,436		1,623,806	1,552,630
15-19	3,144,151	1,596,309	1,547,842	3,185,310		1,617,582	1,567,728
20-24	2,682,242	1,348,775	1,333 467	2,804 461		1,411,284	1,393,177
25-29	2,194,791	1,103,322	1,091,469	2,244,445		1,129,013	1,115,432
30-34	1 950 620	979 580	971 040	1 985 467		998 649	986 818
35-39	1 671 734	818 507	853 227	1 718 778		845 095	873 683
40-44	1,621,998	790,523	831,475	1,615,401		783,707	831,694
45-49	1,380,960	677,596	703,364	1,454,743		713,514	741,229
50-54	945,077	459,719	485,358	1,007,832		490,700	517,132
55-59	606,677	292,139	314,538	668,440		321,710	346,730
60-64	355,794	176,605	179,189	343,031		169,198	173,833
65-69	468,036	219,050	248,986	457,345		214,133	243,212
70-74	302,904	134,719	168,185	317,749		143,597	174,152
75-79	224,965	96,413	128,552	223,559		94,432	129,127
80 or older	188,032	59,892	128,140	201,044		67,309	133,735

Table 2
Permanent population of Republic of Uzbekistan broken down by ethnic composition²
(in persons)

	as of 1 January 2007				as of 1 January 2006
	Total	Urban	Rural	Total		Urban	Rural
TOTAL	26,663,825	9,584,612	17,079,213	26,312,689		9,495,056	16,817,633
Uzbeks	21,542,348	6,719,082	14,823,266	21,170,568		6,601,163	14,569,405
Karakalpaks	583,790	332,813	250,977	574,671		326,736	247,935
Russians	931,590	876,183	55,407	952,243		895,835	56,408
Ukrainians	86,854	75,230	11,624	88,774		77,006	11,768
Belorusians	20,851	16,721	4,130	21,074		16,926	4,148
Kazakhs	879,551	350,887	528,664	899,195		360,760	538,435
Georgians	3,654	2,870	784	3,690		2,903	787
Azerbaijanis	40,432	32,051	8,381	40,459		32,117	8,342
Lithuanians	1,156	1,025	131	1,161		1,027	134
Moldovans	4,888	2,586	2,302	4,940		2,623	2,317
Latvians	215	103	112	225		111	114
Kyrgyz	238,322	29,699	208,623	235,395		29,370	206,025
Tajiks	1,306,875	440,767	866,108	1,288,801		435,163	853,638
Armenians	39,101	37,944	1,157	39,638		38,469	1,169
Turkmen	160,712	31,060	129,652	158,641		30,623	128,018
Estonians	566	469	97	572		472	100
Tatars	236,223	217,155	19,068	242,332		222,569	19,763
Jews	10,643	10,018	625	10,781		10,151	630
Germans	4,861	3,180	1,681	4,951		3,257	1,694
Koreans	150,094	123,007	27,087	152,978		125,257	27,721
Other	421,099	281,762	139,337	421,600		282,518	139,082

Table 3
Demographic indicators³

	2005	2006	2007*
Permanent population as of end of year, in thous. persons	26,312.7	26,663.8	27,071.8
Rate of population growth	101.1	101.3	101.5
Urban population, %	36.1	35.9	35.8
Rural population, %	63.9	64.1	64.2
Population density (number of residents per square kilometer), as of end of year	58.6	59.4	60.3
Number of births per 1,000 population	20.3	20.9	22.4
Number of deaths per 1,000 population	5.4	5.3	5.2
Overall fertility rate or total birth rate	2.36	2.39
Life expectancy at birth:
Both sexes	71.8	72.5
Men	69.6	70.2
Women	74.1	74.9
Dependents (percentage of population 15 or under and older than 65)	36.3%	36.1%

* - Estimate

Table 4