Uzbekistan: authorities refuse to register the organization “Human Rights House”
On December 4, the human rights activist Agzam Turgunov submitted a package of documents for registration of a new human rights organization for the seventh time. The Minister of Justice Ruslanbek Davletov personally got acquainted with the documentation and was skeptical about the prospects for the emergence of the Human Rights House, unambiguously declaring the inevitable refusal of registration and advised to prepare a lawsuit against the department.
On March 9 of this year, the authorities, on the third attempt, allowed the registration of the human rights organization “Khukuky tayanch” [“Legal reliance”]. As the activist Salidjon Abdurakhmanov told ACCA at the time, this is the first structure since 2003 that has got an official status. Earlier, officials strongly refused registration, because the initiative group was headed by the former political prisoner Agzam Turgunov (a person inconvenient for the authorities because of his uncompromising position on the rehabilitation of political prisoners). Being in the colony, Turgunov continued his human rights activities, advising convicts on ways to reduce the term of imprisonment.
In February 2019, he, together with other human rights defenders, applied for registration of the human rights organization “Redress of grievances”. The application was rejected on March 29 on formal grounds. In order to pass all bureaucratic obstacles, the applicants, under pressure from the authorities, changed their name and Turgunov had to resign from the founders. The leaders of “Khukuky tayanch” are his colleagues Azam Farmonov and Dilmurod Sayid. In the registration certificate, the main goal is indicated by a vague wording – “Assistance in ensuring the guarantees of the rights of human organizations and the development of civil society”. Since that time, there is no information about the activities of “Khukuky tayanch” in the public space.
Agzam Turgunov, together with other like-minded people, now intends to use all legal opportunities to register the organization “Human Rights House”.
The Ministry of Justice is selectively approaching the emergence of new non-governmental non-profit organizations. On December 4, the Association of volunteers of Uzbekistan passed the state registration. However, the group of young activists, trying to establish the volunteer center “Oltin kanot”, has received 23 refusals to register NGO from the Justice Department of Tashkent since October 2018. Even the Swedish Walking Society cannot work officially.
The paragraph 19 of the Decree, issued by the Cabinet of Ministers on March 10, 2014, contains a rule that “the registry has the right to send the documents submitted for state registration of NGOs to the relevant organizations for examination”. The list of organizations that have the right to conduct such “examination” was not disclosed. According to the Decree, such organizations are required to provide their opinion within 20 days. The Ministry of Justice does not acquaint civic activists with expert assessments. The Decree appeared after the change of government in Ukraine. Since then the security services have strengthened their control over public activity.
The international organization Human Rights Watch drew attention to the numerous barriers in the work of public organizations, summarizing that “the obligations to bring the Code of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in line with the international standards remain unfulfilled. The EU must ensure that Uzbekistan removes serious shortcomings before providing new trade incentives due to the EU legislation on the true implementation of core human rights treaties”.
