Uzbeks Still Await Promised Human Rights Reforms

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN - In his first major international speech at the 2017 U.N. General Assembly, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev promised systemic reforms in every sector.

“We are deeply convinced that people must not serve government, but government must serve the people,” Mirziyoyev said. But four years later and as presidential elections loom, human rights defenders call those pledges a chimera. “The good news is that fundamental problems have been diagnosed,” said Abdurakhmon Tashanov,  head of the Ezgulik Human Rights Society in Tashkent. “Mirziyoyev and his administration admit to and claim to be tackling them. But it’s time for real steps and solutions.”