Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2005: Uzbekistan

摘要

Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with a population of approximately 26.9 million. The constitution provides for a presidential system with separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; however, in practice President Islam Karimov and the centralized executive branch dominated political life and exercised nearly complete control over the other branches. The two-chamber Oliy Majlis (parliament) consisted almost entirely of officials appointed by the president and members of parties that supported him. The most recent elections in 2004, for seats in the lower chamber of the parliament, fell significantly short of international standards. The civilian authorities generally maintained effective control over the security forces. During the year the following human rights problems were reported: inability of citizens to change their government through peaceful and democratic means; prison deaths under suspicious circumstances; lack of due process; routine and systematic torture and abuse of detainees by security forces; intentional and involuntary committal of sane persons to psychiatric treatment as a form of detention or punishment; poor and life-threatening prison conditions; increased incidents of arbitrary arrest and detention, including house arrest, sometimes on falsified charges; politically motivated arrests and incommunicado detention; impunity of officials responsible for abuses; lengthy pretrial detention; infringement of the right to a fair public trial and restricted access to independent monitors; approximately five thousand political prisoners; frequent searches of homes by authorities; occasional eviction of residents from their homes without due process; regular or frequent detention or mistreatment of family members of persons under criminal investigation; government limitations on the freedom of speech and press; arrest, harassment, intimidation, and violence by police and other government forces against journalists; self-censorship by journalists; blocked public access to Internet content objectionable to the government; restricted freedom of assembly and association; blocked registration of many religious congregations; societal discrimination against ethnic Uzbek Christians; limited freedom of movement through the use of exit visas, a local registration regime, and deportation on political grounds; no formal recognition of asylum or refugee status or established system for providing protection to refugees; frequent harassment of members of unregistered parties; widespread public perception of government corruption; limited respect for constitutional rights to access government information affecting the public; regular threats and intimidation by police and security forces to prevent human rights activists from conducting activities; restrictions on human rights and other activities of international bodies and foreign diplomatic missions; persistent societal discrimination against women; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation, and men for labor exploitation; denial of workers' rights to associate and bargain collectively; and reports of forced or compulsory labor; continued mobilization of youth for work in the cotton harvest.