Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Information received from Uzbekistan on follow-up to the concluding observations on its combined tenth to twelfth periodic reports *
[Date received: 26 November 2020]
Information from the National Centre for Human Rights of the Republic of Uzbekistan on follow-up to paragraphs 13 (c) and (d) and 19 of the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the combined tenth to twelfth reports of Uzbekistan (CERD/C/UZB/CO/10-12)
1.Members of the more than 130 ethnic groups and peoples living in Uzbekistan enjoy the rights and opportunities accorded by the Constitution and laws of Uzbekistan on an equal footing and are fruitfully engaged in many areas of the economy, science and culture. Ethnic Lyuli citizens live as equals alongside other ethnic groups.
2.There are 69,851 Lyuli/Roma persons in Uzbekistan, of whom 21,278 live in Samarkand province; 14,127 in Kashkadarya Province; 8,603 in Surkhan-Darya Province; 6,948 in Bukhara Province; 6,220 in Andizhan Province; 4,271 in Djizak Province; 2,442 in Navoi Province; 1,700 in Tashkent Province; 1,652 in Namangan Province; 46 in Syr-Daria Province; and 2,564 in the city of Tashkent.
3.The national policy outline on inter-ethnic relations and a road map for its implementation over the period 2019–2021 were approved by presidential decree on 15 November 2019.
4.The outline lays down the main objectives and principles of national policy on inter-ethnic relations and is geared towards countering any displays of nationalism or chauvinism, preventing discrimination and violations of citizens’ constitutional rights and freedoms, and ensuring equal rights and freedoms for citizens and their equality before the law, without distinction as to sex, race, ethnicity, language, religion, social origin, beliefs or personal or social status.
5.The outline provides for the implementation of measures to improve the mechanism for fully facilitating the development of the languages and cultures of all the ethnic groups and peoples living in Uzbekistan; and to support the realization of the right to education for members of ethnic minorities and create educational literature in their languages.
6.On 15 October 2020, a national action plan for the implementation, over the period 2020–2022, of the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the combined tenth to twelfth reports of Uzbekistan under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was approved by a joint decision of the councils (kengash) of the Legislative Chamber and of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the parliament of Uzbekistan.
7.The national action plan provides for improvements to the system for collecting statistical data on ethnicity (item 1), the development of qualitative and quantitative indicators to monitor the activities of State bodies in implementing the Convention, and the development and approval of a set of measures to uphold the rights of Lyuli/Roma persons over the period 2020–2025, including with regard to the acquisition of citizenship.
Follow-up information relating to paragraph 13 (c) and (d) of the concluding observations
8.In accordance with article 18 of the Constitution, “all citizens of Uzbekistan have the same rights and freedoms and are equal before the law, without distinction as to sex, race, ethnicity, language, religion, social origin, beliefs or personal or social status”.
9.“Privileges may be established only by law and should be in keeping with the principles of social justice.”
10.Lyuli/Roma persons in Uzbekistan have equal rights and equal opportunities to obtain identity documents. Measures are taken to grant Uzbek citizenship to Lyuli/Roma persons, and birth certificates are issued to children born at home so that they can obtain Uzbek passports in the future.
11.As at 1 November 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan had issued a total of 25,638 documents to Lyuli/Roma persons (including 13,100 to women).
12.This number comprises 25,568 biometric Uzbek passports (including 13,068 issued to women), 14 residency permits for foreign nationals (including 10 issued to women) and 56 residency permits for stateless persons (including 22 issued to women).
13.In accordance with article 41 of the Constitution, “everyone has the right to education. The State guarantees free general education. Schooling is supervised by the State.”
14.Under article 65 of the Constitution, “children are equal before the law, irrespective of their background and the civil status of their parents. Mothers and children are protected by the State.”
15.Under article 5 of the Education Act, “everyone is guaranteed equal rights to education, without distinction as to sex, race, ethnicity, language, religion, social origin, beliefs or personal or social status”.
16.In accordance with article 6 of the Preschool Education Act, “every child has a right to preschool education. The State guarantees the right of every child to receive, in State preschool education institutions, one year of compulsory preparation for general education during the year prior to his or her admission to a general education institution.”
17.Lyuli/Roma children attend preschool education institutions and acquire, on an equal footing with other children, all the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities in accordance with State requirements for early years and preschool child development and with the “Ilk qadam” (First Step) State programme.
18.Since 2020, work has been under way to improve oversight by the parliament, deputies and the public of the implementation of the strategic framework for the development of the preschool education system up to 2030.
19.Extensive efforts are being made to implement the Preschool Education Act in the country. The proportion of children aged 3–7 years in preschool has increased from 27 to 54 per cent (1,413,290 out of 2.7 million children), and the number of preschool education institutions has increased from 5,211 to 14,181. Alternative forms of preschool education are being developed, and mobile and modular preschool education centres are being widely introduced.
20.At general education institutions, teaching is provided in accordance with State educational standards and in seven languages (Uzbek, Russian, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Turkmen).
21.In Uzbekistan, an integrated system has been set up to ensure close cooperation between preschool, general primary and secondary, specialized secondary, vocational and higher education institutions and to create all the conditions for the full enjoyment by Lyuli/Roma persons of their rights to education.
22.For example, approximately 1,700 Lyuli/Roma persons live in Yuqori Chirchiq District in Tashkent Province. This number includes approximately 800 school-age children: there are 791 children, among them 267 girls, who attend school. In the 2020/21 school year, 24 Lyuli/Roma children are enrolled in the first grade. There are no children outside the compulsory education system. In 2020, 24 Lyuli/Roma children finished school, and 2 entered higher education institutions in Uzbekistan.
Follow-up information relating to paragraph 19 of the concluding observations
23.Reply to paragraph 19. According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the period up to 30 October 2020, over 30,000 (specifically, 30,090) criminal investigations were carried out, during which 5,059 persons were remanded in custody as a preventive measure. An analysis of the ethnicity of these persons shows that, in total, the preventive measure of remand in custody was applied in respect of members of 18 ethnic groups: 4,703 Uzbeks, 154 Russians, 84 Kazakhs, 71 Karakalpaks, 60 Tajiks, 30 Tatars, 12 Turks, 14 Lyuli/Roma persons, 11 Iranians, 9 Koreans, 6 Kyrgyz, 5 Uighurs, 3 Turkmens, 3 Afghans, 2 Azerbaijanis, 2 Moldovans, 1 Bashkir and 1 Bangladeshi. Of these persons, 211 were women and 79 minors.
24.An analysis of the data on foreign nationals shows that three citizens of Kazakhstan, two citizens of the Russian Federation and one each of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Moldova were remanded in custody as a preventive measure.
25.As at 1 November 2020, the following persons were being held in prisons (places of detention) in Uzbekistan:
(1) 18,947 ethnic Uzbeks; (2) 1,386 ethnic Russians; (3) 941 ethnic Tajiks; (4) 561 ethnic Tatars; (5) 433 ethnic Kazakhs; (6) 256 ethnic Karakalpaks; (7) 165 ethnic Turkmens; (8) 133 ethnic Koreans; (9) 88 ethnic Uighurs; (10) 77 ethnic Kyrgyz; (11) 71 ethnic Ukrainians; (12) 23 ethnic Afghans; and (13) 9 ethnic Belarusians. For women, the numbers were as follows: 806 ethnic Uzbeks, 69 ethnic Russians, 16 ethnic Tatars, 3 ethnic Uighurs, 4 ethnic Ukrainians, 15 ethnic Kazakhs, 3 ethnic Kyrgyz, 44 ethnic Tajiks, 6 ethnic Turkmens, 3 ethnic Afghans, 6 ethnic Koreans and 9 ethnic Karakalpaks. For minors, the numbers were as follows: 43 ethnic Uzbeks, 5 ethnic Kazakhs, 3 ethnic Tajiks and 1 ethnic Russian.
The following foreign nationals were being held in prisons (places of detention): 2 nationals of Azerbaijan, 2 nationals of Armenia, 80 nationals of Afghanistan, 1 national of Belarus, 20 nationals of Kazakhstan, 4 nationals of Cameroon, 1 national of China, 2 nationals of Korea, 36 nationals of Kyrgyzstan, 31 nationals of the Russian Federation, 80 nationals of Tajikistan, 6 nationals of Turkmenistan, 2 nationals of Turkey and 6 nationals of Ukraine. The following stateless persons were being held in prisons (places of detention): 108 ethnic Uzbeks, 30 ethnic Russians, 8 ethnic Tatars, 8 ethnic Uighurs, 8 ethnic Ukrainians, 5 ethnic Kazakhs, 6 ethnic Kyrgyz, 13 ethnic Tajiks, 2 ethnic Turkmens and 9 ethnic Koreans.
26.Item 78 of the road map for the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy, which was approved by presidential decree on 22 June 2020, provides for: improvements to the State and non-State statistical system for data collection with a view to developing qualitative and quantitative human rights protection indicators in accordance with international requirements; the development and implementation of a data-collection system with a focus on giving effect to the “leave no one behind” principle of the Sustainable Development Goals; and skills upgrading for staff who deal with court statistics through the involvement of foreign experts who have sufficient practical experience and skills in this area, with the aim of further improving court statistics related to the protection of human rights.
Information on the ethnicity of persons held in temporary holding facilities of the internal affairs agencies
No. |
Name of region |
Total |
By ethnicity |
Including |
Foreign nationals |
Stateless persons |
|||||
Russian |
Kazakh |
Tajik |
Kyrgyz |
Tatar |
Women |
Minors |
|||||
1 |
City of Tashkent |
0 |
121 |
19 |
4 |
||||||
2 |
Tashkent Province |
7 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
156 |
22 |
7 |
|||
3 |
Syr-Daria Province |
0 |
47 |
9 |
1 |
||||||
4 |
Djizak Province |
0 |
51 |
3 |
4 |
||||||
5 |
Samarkand Province |
36 |
25 |
11 |
109 |
16 |
2 |
||||
6 |
Fergana Province |
0 |
139 |
2 |
|||||||
7 |
Andizhan Province |
0 |
46 |
3 |
0 |
||||||
8 |
Namangan Province |
2 |
2 |
54 |
27 |
2 |
|||||
9 |
Bukhara Province |
33 |
11 |
3 |
12 |
7 |
26 |
1 |
|||
10 |
Navoi Province |
114 |
54 |
30 |
14 |
16 |
28 |
1 |
2 |
||
11 |
Kashkadarya Province |
0 |
84 |
3 |
0 |
||||||
12 |
Surkhan-Darya Province |
0 |
40 |
11 |
|||||||
13 |
Khorezm Province |
0 |
27 |
0 |
|||||||
14 |
Republic of Karakalpakstan |
0 |
24 |
3 |
9 |
||||||
15 |
Temporary holding facilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs |
0 |
10 |
2 |
|||||||
Total |
192 |
93 |
33 |
40 |
3 |
23 |
972 |
102 |
42 |
11 |
Ministry of Internal Affairs .