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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

There remained no comprehensive anti-

discrimination policy protecting LGBTI people 

from violence in schools and public spaces 

and ensuring their access to health services.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

There were 27 femicides between January 

and November, according to official data. The 

adoption and implementation of a 

comprehensive law against gender-based 

violence, as part of Uruguay’s 2016-2019 

Action Plan on gender-based violence, was 

still pending.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

The lack of public policies to ensure access 

to health services in rural areas continued 

and access to sexual and reproductive health 

services in these areas remained limited.

Obstacles to accessing abortions persisted 

due to a lack of regulation of conscientious 

objection by physicians and other health 

personnel.

High rates of child and adolescent 

pregnancy continued, due in part to the 

absence of adequate sexual and reproductive 

health services and information to prevent 

unplanned pregnancies.

UZBEKISTAN

Republic of Uzbekistan

Head of state: Shavkat Mirzioiev

Head of government : Abdulla Aripov

The authorities eased some undue 

restrictions on the media and the right to 

freedom of expression. Several prisoners of 

conscience and other prisoners serving long 

sentences on politically motivated charges 

were released; their right to freedom of 

movement remained restricted. National 

Security Service (NSS) officers arbitrarily 

detained an independent journalist and 

tortured him to “confess” to anti-state 

crimes. The authorities continued to seek 

the return of people they considered a 

threat to national security. Local authorities 

continued to draft thousands of medical 

personnel and teaching staff to work in the 

cotton fields. Consensual sexual relations 

between men remained a criminal offence.

BACKGROUND

President Mirzioiev continued to introduce a 

number of wide-ranging political and 

economic reform proposals, designed to end 

past isolationist and repressive policies. An 

action strategy on judicial reform was 

approved in February. It set out several 

priorities for systemic reform, including 

ensuring genuine judicial independence, 

increasing the effectiveness and authority of 

the judiciary, and ensuring robust judicial 

protection of the rights and freedoms of 

citizens.

One of the legislative changes reduced the 

maximum time a person could be detained 

before being brought before a judge from 72 

to 48 hours.

In May, at the end of the first ever visit by 

the UN Office of the High Commissioner for 

Human Rights to Uzbekistan, the 

Commissioner called on the President to 

translate his reform pledges into action for 

the effective protection of human rights.

In November, the President issued a decree 

explicitly prohibiting the use of torture to 

obtain confessions and their admission as 

evidence in court proceedings.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – HUMAN 

RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND JOURNALISTS

The authorities eased some undue 

restrictions on the right to freedom of 

expression. They allowed some critical 

reporting by the media and released several 

prisoners convicted on politically motivated 

charges. However, the government retained 

firm control of access to information. 

Independent and international media 

platforms considered critical of the authorities 

remained inaccessible.

In February, the authorities released 

Muhammad Bekzhanov, after he served 17 

years in prison on politically motivated 

charges. He remained under curfew and 

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close police supervision. In July, Erkin 

Musaev, a former military official and staff 

member of the UN Development Programme, 

was released early. He had been sentenced 

to 20 years on fabricated espionage charges 

in 2006. Prisoners of conscience Azam 

Farmonov and Salidzhon Abdurakhmonov, 

human rights lawyer Agzam Turgunov and 

two other human rights defenders were 

released in October. All of them had been 

tortured in detention. Prisoner of conscience 

Isroil Kholdorov remained in prison.

In July, during a visit to the EU, the Foreign 

Minister extended invitations to international 

NGOs and international media to visit 

Uzbekistan. The authorities granted limited 

access to some representatives of 

international NGOs and media.

Despite these positive developments, 

human rights defenders and independent 

journalists, both exiled and in Uzbekistan, as 

well as their families, continued to be 

subjected to smear campaigns online, on 

national television and in the print media.

Surveillance by the authorities in Uzbekistan 

and abroad reinforced the repressive 

environment for human rights defenders, 

journalists and others. Technical and legal 

systems facilitated unlawful surveillance and 

failed to provide effective controls and 

remedies against abuse.

1

On 27 September, NSS officers detained 

independent journalist Bobomurod 

Abdullayev as he was leaving his home in the 

capital, Tashkent. He was held 

incommunicado for two weeks in an NSS 

pre-trial detention facility, which is well 

known for the use of torture. The NSS 

accused him of using a pseudonym to 

publish online articles that called for the 

overthrow of the government and instigating 

unrest in Uzbekistan, crimes punishable by 

up to 20 years in prison. NSS officers warned 

his family not to contact human rights 

organizations or the media, and allowed him 

only limited and supervised access to a 

lawyer of his choice ten weeks after he was 

detained. In November, the authorities 

extended his pre-trial detention for another 

three months. On 26 December, the NSS 

accused his lawyer of misrepresenting the 

case to the public and forced Bobomurod 

Abdullayev to dismiss him in favour of a 

state-appointed one.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

In August, the President announced that the 

legal requirement for Uzbekistani nationals to 

obtain permission to leave the country would 

be abolished by 2019. Nevertheless, the 

authorities continued to impose travel 

restrictions on newly released prisoners who 

had been convicted on politically motivated 

charges. Some former prisoners continued to 

be prevented from travelling abroad for 

urgent medical treatment.

Human rights lawyer Polina Braunerg who 

used a wheelchair, died in May from a stroke 

after being repeatedly refused permission to 

travel abroad for medical treatment.

In October, Murad Dzhuraev, a former 

Member of Parliament, who was released in 

November 2015 after serving 20 years in 

prison on politically motivated charges, was 

finally allowed to travel to Germany for urgent 

medical treatment following mounting 

international pressure. On 4 December, he 

died suddenly before being able to leave the 

country.

On 22 February, journalist Muhammad 

Bekzhanov was released after 17 years in 

prison. His sentence was handed down after 

an unfair trial and torture, and arbitrarily 

extended. At the end of the year, he had not 

been granted permission to apply for an exit 

visa to join his family abroad. He was not 

allowed to travel to Tashkent for urgent 

medical treatment that he required as a 

consequence of the torture and other ill-

treatment he was subjected to.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

The authorities repeatedly stated that they 

had no intention of decriminalizing 

consensual sexual relations between men, 

which constituted a crime punishable by a 

prison term of up to three years.

Same-sex consensual sexual relations 

remained highly stigmatized, and LGBTI 

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