Prisons may open doors to human rights observers

The international human rights organisation Freedom House has launched an initiative for local human rights' observers to monitor conditions in Uzbek prisons. Mjusa Server, director of the Freedom House office in the capital Tashkent, told journalists that "very productive discussions" had been held between Uzbek human rights activists and officials responsible for prisons in the country. Server was speaking during the first ever press conference in Uzbekistan attended both by top police officials and human rights' defenders. "A major achievement we agreed on is the establishment of a group of human rights' defenders who will visit Uzbek prisons to review their general conditions," Server said, adding that the prison visitors would be trained by Freedom House in how to carry out the monitoring. Mikhail Gurevich of the Uzbek Interior Ministry speculated, however, that this might take some time to achieve. "Of course we understand the worries of the rights' defenders, but we would [first] like them to receive training in conducting such monitoring," he said. According to Surat Ikramov, head of the initiative group of independent human rights' defenders, they expect to visit at least seven to eight prisons around the country. "We have received numerous complaints from prisoners themselves and from their relatives about harsh conditions in many prisons," said Ikramov, adding that they would also concentrate on the problem of diseases in jails such as tuberculosis, believed to be widespread among prisoners. The first ever meeting between Interior Ministry representatives and human rights advocates was held on 15 March this year. It discussed Uzbekistan's poor human rights record and ways of eliminating the use of torture by law enforcement officials. Since then Freedom House has held follow-up meetings and seminars for both sides. In response to recommendations by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, the government has developed an action plan to address the official use of torture. Uzbek Justice Minister Abdusamad Polvonzoda last week accused Freedom House and two other US-funded NGOs of violating Uzbek legislation by working with unregistered political organizations within the country and providing anti-government groups with grants. The minister's accusations were denied by both Freedom House and the US Embassy in Tashkent. "We have not violated Uzbek laws in our operations. We have been working in accordance with Uzbek legislation and, in line with our mission, rendered assistance to Uzbek rights' activists," the head of the Freedom House office said on 25 May. "We will continue our work as before, that is in accordance with Uzbek legislation and with our mission," she added. Freedom House faced difficulties with the Uzbek authorities when it first started its activity in the country in 2003. They were prevented from holding a training session for human rights activists in the eastern city of Namangan in the Ferghana Valley. Freedom House saw the harassment by local government officials as a result of its work in assisting local human rights' monitors at that time. As Mjusa Server said at her news conference: "There is a lot of work to be done before we start to trust each other".