Local activists see little improvement in rights situation

Local human-rights groups in Uzbekistan have expressed varying views over their country's human-rights record following last month's annual meeting of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the capital, Tashkent. Whereas some have suggested that the situation has improved, others assert that it has actually worsened. "Over the past year and a half, the overall human rights situation in the country has improved to a great extent," Mikhail Ardzinov, the head of the Independent Human Rights Organisation of Uzbekistan, told IRIN from Tashkent. While conceding that genuine shortcomings remained, he noted that the sustained influence and pressure being brought to bear on President Islam Karimov by international organisations had been having a positive effect. But not everyone agrees. During the run-up to the conference in May, rights groups - both local and international - strongly criticised the bank's choice of venue, asserting that it would send the wrong message to Tashkent on its human rights record. Indeed, international watchdog groups - Human Rights Watch (HRW) and over 50 partners - cautioned the EBRD that going ahead with the meeting without requiring any reforms in advance would leave the Uzbek government free to interpret it as an endorsement of its repressive policies. According to its founding document, the EBRD, which was established to promote private-sector development in countries of the former Soviet bloc, is to operate in such countries of the region as are committed to the "fundamental principles of multiparty democracy, the rule of law, human rights and market economics". However, international rights groups, including HRW and Amnesty International, feel that Uzbekistan falls well short of those standards. More than a month after the meeting, most activists in the country wonder how such an opportunity to induce positive change could have been lost. According to Vasilya Inoyatova, the head of E'zgulik Human-Rights Society of Uzbekistan, the rights situation has gone from bad to worse, particularly regarding the usage of torture. "Uzbekistan's human-rights record has deteriorated seriously since the recent EBRD meeting," she told IRIN, noting that whereas conditions within the penitentiary system had shown signs of improvement prior to the conference, those same conditions had taken a dramatic downturn after the event. Besieged by calls, she asserted that many families of inmates were now appealing to her organisation for help. Meanwhile, Mutabar Ahmedova, another independent human rights activist, also argued that Uzbekistan's highly publicised human-rights record had shown no signs of improvement - either before or after the meeting. "The human-rights record before and after the EBRD meeting remained the same. There have been no signs of improvement," she told IRIN, maintaining that individuals exposed to various rights abuses were largely isolated in Uzbek society. Echoing that sentiment, Talib Yakubov, the head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, stated that his group too had not observed signs of improvement. "We definitely don't see any improvements in the human-rights record after the meeting. On the contrary, I can say that it is really worsening," he told IRIN. In general, human-rights activists agree that international organisations should closely observe and monitor the human-rights situation in the country, while some have called on the UN, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and embassies of Western European countries and the US to step up the pressure for reform on Karimov's government.