Uzbekistani human rights defender Mutabar Tadzhibaeva, who was
sentenced to eight years in prison in 2006, was unexpectedly released
on Monday, 2 June.
The trend towards total abolition of the death penalty has continued with Uzbekistan becoming the latest country to put an end to executions.
Amnesty International is urging the government of Uzbekistan to take effective action to implement in practice the recommendations of the United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture (CAT), which published its concluding observations and recommendations on 23 November 2007. These were issued following the CAT’s examination on 9 and 11 November of Uzbekistan’s third periodic report setting out the country’s compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Uzbekistan’s written replies to a list of issues raised by the CAT at its pre-session in May.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, co-operation between former
members, Russia and Uzbekistan, has been increasingly influenced by
concerns about regional security and the "war on terror".
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq in March 2003, more
journalists have been killed in that country than anywhere else in the
world.
On this 55th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
threats of new terrorist attacks and the dangers of weapons of mass
destruction dominate the headlines.
