Apart from expensive and useless receptions and seminars on human rights theory for high school and university students and older generations, i.e. former Communists who did not know about human rights during Soviet times, the government of Uzbekistan is not really interested in spreading more information on human rights with its own people who do not attend schools and are not invited to fancy events like the one organized by the National Human Rights Center directed by irreplaceable Akmal Saidov, with participation of international guests.

Moreover, nobody in the government dares to even think about discussing real human rights situation in the Uzbekistan — “Interests of a human being are priority over anything,” or “Uzbekistan has ratified all six UN conventions on human rights” is the classic response to any sort of concerns regarding independent reports on human rights violations.

The article claims that the National Human Rights Center had participated in the expertise of more than 100 bills and 10 National plans of actions in the field of human rights.

The event, entitled “International treaties and Uzbekistan’s experience in the process of prefectioning of the national human rights and freedoms system,” became the main concluding event in the “Welcome-to-Uzbekistan-the-land-of-happiness-and-human-rights-protection” propaganda program for 2011.

To make the event seem legit, Mr. Saidov invited Ombudsman from Slovenia, representatives from the Danish Institute for Human Rights, National Center for Human Rights of Slovakia, Scottish Human Rights Commission, who talked about the role of human rights and the way Uzbekistan deals with “every single case of human rights violations.”

There were even cases when some banned web sites of information agencies were accessible to people without using proxy servers/web sites. neweurasia could not confirm this, but trusts the sources who informed about the temporary access changes.

“All the reports and supporting materials of the event will be published and distributed among high schools, universities and makhallas. This will be another step in informing people about the efforts the Uzbek government takes to make sure human rights is a priority in its policymaking. But, of course, this all is to show-off how ‘developed’ in this field we are, while in fact we are not,” the National Human Rights Center staffer who asked to be unnamed, told neweurasia.

“At our events, I saw people who were sceptical about the information we provide, but they remained silent only because they did not want troubles. People in the HuanRights Center know that too, but a status and fear for the future of their own and their families keep them in this perfectly managed system of praises and lies,” he said.

Halq So'zi, #243 of December 16, 2011