Ban Ki-moon warns Uzbekistan on human rights Skip to main content

Ban Ki-moon warns Uzbekistan on human rights

Ban Ki-moon poses with Uzbek students on 5 April 2010
Ban Ki-moon is on a six-day tour of Central Asian nations
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Uzbekistan to improve its human rights record.
Speaking in Tashkent, Mr Ban said Uzbekistan had to put the international agreements it had signed on torture and civil rights fully into practice.

Rights groups and western countries have accused Uzbek authorities of abuses, including torture, and repressing political dissent.
President Islam Karimov, who later met Mr Ban, denies there are such abuses.
Mr Ban is on a six-day tour of Central Asian nations.
On Sunday he visited the Aral Sea - the once-vast lake that has shrunk to about 10% of its original size as a result of Soviet-era irrigation projects.
Calling it one of the world's worst environmental disasters, Mr Ban promised UN assistance in dealing with the catastrophe.
'Time to deliver'
Mr Ban's visit to Uzbekistan came less than two weeks after the country was criticised in a report by the UN Human Rights Committee.
Ban Ki-moon visist the Aral sea on 4 April 2010 (Image: United 
Nations Photos)
Mr Ban visited the Aral Sea, calling it an environmental disaster
The committee said Uzbekistan had failed properly to investigate a bloody government crackdown on protesters in Andijan in 2005.
It also expressed concern over reports of torture by security personnel, the harassment of journalists and activists, and queried the independence of the judiciary.
Mr Ban did not give specific examples, but he told students at a university in Tashkent that it was time for the country to make progress.
"You have an important place in the universal agreements that bind us as a community of nations," he said. "It is time to deliver. To put them fully into practice."
He later met Mr Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan for two decades, telling him he expected the government to "lead by example".
Mr Ban is now travelling to Tajikistan.

BBC NEWS

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do

Is 160 enough? One Indian man's family

By Sumnima Udas , CNN October 31, 2011 -- Updated 0857 GMT (1657 HKT) Ziona, center, with his has 39 wives, 86 children and 35 grandchildren in rural Baktwang village, India. STORY HIGHLIGHTS One man in India is the patriarch of a family of 160 in rural India Ziona, who only goes by his first name, has 39 wives, 86 children and 35 grandchildren. Ziona's father, Chana, founded the Christian sect in Baktwang that promotes polygamy "I never wanted to get married but that's the path God has chosen for me" Mizoram, India (CNN) -- The world's population hits 7 billion this week, but Ziona, the patriarch of what may be the biggest family in the world, is not bothered. "I don't care about overpopulation in India ... I believe God has chosen us to be like this (have big families). Those who are born into this family don't want to leave this tradition so we just keep growing and growing," he says with a smile. Ziona, who only goes by his f