Amnesty International is calling on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to “confront Uzbekistan’s leadership on the country’s appalling human rights record” during his visit on June 12.
In a statement issued on June 9, the London-based group urges Ban to “firmly reassert” the UN’s previous calls for Tashkent to honor its international obligations and to demand that UN human rights experts be allowed to enter the country.
Amnesty says the country’s authorities must pledge “immediate and urgent reforms to end torture and the myriad of other abuses condoned by the government.”
John Dalhuisen, director of AI’s European and Central Asia program, said, “Even with Ban’s impending visit, the Uzbekistani police and security apparatus continues to brazenly commit acts of torture.”
Last week, Elena Urlaeva, head of the Uzbek Human Rights Defenders' Alliance, said she was detained by police and subjected to violence and sexual humiliation after she gathered evidence of forced labor in the Central Asian nation’s cotton sector.