UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Vice-President: Uzbekistan

Security services detained a reporter on suspicion of calling for a violent overthrow of the government, who alleged he had been beaten, deprived of sleep and kept in solitary confinement.
Source: Reuters, March 28, 2018. Photo: Uzbekistan soldiers (Wikimedia Commons)

Mission of the General Assembly:
"13. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:
    a. promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification;
    b. promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." ("UN Charter")

Term of office: 2019-2020

Uzbekistan's Record on "the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion":
"Human rights issues included torture and abuse of detainees by security forces, arbitrary arrest, and incommunicado and prolonged detention; harsh and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions; political prisoners; restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, and the internet, including censorship, criminal libel, and site blocking; restrictions on assembly and association, including restrictions on civil society, with human rights activists, journalists, and others who criticized the government subject to harassment, prosecution and detention; severe restrictions on religious freedom; restrictions on freedom of movement; restrictions on political participation in which citizens were unable to choose their government in free, fair, and periodic elections; criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) conduct; and human trafficking, including forced labor. Impunity remained pervasive,... arbitrary arrest on political grounds continued... Human rights activists and political opposition figures generally assumed that security agencies covertly monitored their telephone calls and activities... The government exercises official and unofficial restrictions on the ability of individuals to criticize the government or to discuss matters of general public interest. The law restricts criticism of the president, and publicly insulting the president is a crime for which conviction is punishable by up to five years in prison..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2018, Uzbekistan)