Uzbekistan: President instructed to develop a procedure for compensation for victims of torture
International Day in support of victims of torture, on June 26, was celebrated by President Mirziyoyev by signing a decree “On additional measures to improve the system for detecting and preventing cases of torture”. The coincidence of the date of the UN and the day of the adoption of the document corresponds to the practice of active PR-campaigns carried out by the state and affiliated structures to improve their positions in world rankings.
The President, speaking with a message to Parliament on December 29, 2020, stated that “it’s absolutely fair that such cases, which still take place, cause serious indignation of citizens and harm the international reputation of our country”. It was then that he instructed to establish a system of quarterly monitoring visits to pre-trial detention centers and penitentiary institutions with the participation of members of the public.
The resolution amends the law adopted in April 2018, which strengthened the responsibility for the use of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The actions of the new legislation in three years didn’t stimulate to change the situation.
If earlier the state tried to solve the problem of violence by transforming articles in the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, now “on the basis of an expert group under the Oliy Majlis [Senate] Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman), public groups will be created to identify and prevent cases of torture under the Ombudsman”.
“The authorities themselves will determine the composition of these groups through the Ombudsman’s Office and the state body – the National Center for Human Rights. Medical workers, representatives of non-governmental non-profit organizations, the media and some other institutions of civil society will be involved in cooperation,” the ACCA expert noted one feature of the decision. “It’s difficult to expect the inclusion of leaders of initiative human rights groups in the monitoring teams, disseminating alternative information about torture in penitentiary institutions in independent media.”
The National Center and the Ombudsman will determine the level of “professional qualifications and practical knowledge for the implementation of monitoring visits, as well as ensuring gender equality”.
“Over the past two years, the Center has ignored dozens of our reports of violations of prisoners’ rights, including complaints of torture in colonies and pre-trial detention centers,” says Tatyana Dovlatova, leader of the initiative group “Open line”. “Nobody interfered with the head of the Center Akmal Saidov to do what the President has now instructed. We didn’t wait for clear answers from the Ombudsman Feruza Eshmatova and her predecessor.”
These structures completely ignored the case of Alexander Trofimov, a 29-year-old father of two children and registered with a disability. On May 6 and 7, 2021, he was tortured and ill-treated by operational officers of the Department of Internal Affairs of Chilanzar district in Tashkent. ACCA wrote that international human rights organizations called on the authorities of Uzbekistan to immediately conduct an effective investigation into these reports, to publicize the findings and to prosecute those who are reasonably identified as guilty of torture.
The document sees as positive the requirement to develop a procedure for compensation for damage caused to victims of torture within three months. The question remains: Will the list of these people include prisoners of the era of Karimov or, for example, the scientist Andrei Kubatin with the 69-year-old ex-diplomat Kadyr Yusupov, who suffered already under Mirziyoyev?
The expert group on the prevention of torture of the National Preventive Mechanism under the Ombudsman was established in 2019, but hasn’t yet proven its independence and effectiveness in preventing torture. Victims of torture, their relatives and lawyers, who try to complain about torture, are subjected to harassment and moreover. This is the conclusion reached by the independent non-governmental organization “International Partnership for Human Rights” (IPHR, Belgium). This NGO, together with colleagues from other Western countries, after such a presidential instruction, has the right to contribute to “establishing close cooperation with international organizations and national institutions of foreign states in the prevention of torture”.
The National Center for Human Rights together with the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as noted in the resolution, was instructed to submit proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers on the issue of Uzbekistan’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. To date, the Convention has been ratified by 162 countries.
During the period from May to June of the current year, the ACCA published nine stories about torture.
