Monitoring visits to places of detention in Uzbekistan, in particular penal colonies, are carried out by public groups for the detection and prevention of torture under the Ombudsman’s office. Starting from 2022, our organization, the Representative Office of the Association of Central Asia in Uzbekistan, has participated in these monitoring visits to prisons as part … Read more
Neitbay Urazbayev, a Karakalpak activist based in Kazakhstan, appears to have had his Kazakhstani citizenship revoked. Neither Kazakhstan nor Uzbekistan recognizes dual citizenship. In order to obtain Kazakh citizenship, an individual has to formally renounce their previous citizenship. Uzbek law, meanwhile, states that the acquisition of foreign citizenship triggers a loss of Uzbek citizenship, but … Read more
Advertisement In late August, a civil court judge in Tashkent ordered independent economist Yuliy Yusupov to publish a retraction and apologize in the media to Uzbekipaksanoat, the Uzbek Silk Association, for an article he published in March this year, which revealed corruption and the use of coercion in the production of silkworm cocoons. Yusupov, director … Read more
Advertisement On September 19, U.S. President Joe Biden met with the presidents of the five Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – a major upgrade in the United States’ relationship with the region. Geopolitics (i.e. Russia and China), the specter of instability (the region has seen several incidents of mass violence … Read more
Advertisement In the late 2000s, when I was a teenager, many popular books were not available in my native tongue – Uzbek. New translations were often poor and good translations were from the Soviet era. That is how I ended up forcing myself to learn Russian one page at a time, and later I switched … Read more
Advertisement “Many suggest I shut down the media, but I won’t do it,” Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said in February 2023. He was once again assuring audiences that he “likes the breath of freedom,” while conceding it makes it “harder to work.” Two years earlier, Mirziyoyev even proposed punishing officials for censorship, intimidation, and interference … Read more