As a first contribution in the series “response to non-response“, here is what happened to Human Rights Watch office in Uzbekistan, the home of the 2008 MEA Laureate Mutabar Tadjibaeva:
On 17 March 2011 Human Rights Watch reported that the Uzbek government has forced it to close its Uzbekistan office. For years the government has obstructed the organization’s work by denying visas and work accreditation to staff, but has now officially ended the presence in Tashkent after 15 years. “With the expulsion of Human Rights Watch, the Uzbek government sends a clear message that it isn’t willing to tolerate critical scrutiny of its human rights record,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “but let me be clear, too: we aren’t going to be silenced by this. We are as committed as ever to report on abuses in Uzbekistan.”
HRW added that the Uzbekistan authorities’ move is the culmination of years of harassment and an attack not just on the organisation but on all human rights defenders in the country. It is urging the West to finally stand up to Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov and condemn the closure or risk making the same mistakes it did in backing autocratic regimes in the Middle East. Steve Swerdlow, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) who spent two months in Uzbekistan at the end of last year before being forced out of the country, told IPS: “The West needs to stand up and give its support for human rights and show Uzbekistanis that it is on the right side of history.” He added: “Our closure just leaves what human rights defenders there are in Uzbekistan even more isolated and under threat”. According to IPS the only registered local human rights monitoring group in Uzbekistan, Ezgulik, has said the regime’s move to shut down HRW would “isolate” Uzbekistan, while Uzbek human rights activist Abdurahmon Tashanov told local media that with HRW no longer in the country local rights defenders had lost their “moral support”.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 