The recommendations of Human Rights Watch for the implementation of the European Union’s comprehensive Central Asia strategy, introduced in 2007. Human Rights Watch is convinced that the strategy carries significant potential to be an effective tool for the advancement of human rights in the countries of Central Asia. For this, benchmarking, consultations, and transparency in implementation are of utmost importance in order for the strategy to realize its full
potential impact on human rights. This paper explains why such elements are crucial, provides a brief summary of human rights concerns in each Central Asian country and suggests key actions and benchmarks we hope to see the EU advance as part of its engagement with these countries.

Under President Karimov, the Uzbek government has converted the mahalla committees from an autonomous expression of self-government to a national system for surveillance and control. This report documents the role mahalla committees have played three critical areas of government abuse—the government’s six-year campaign against those who practice Islam beyond government-regulated institutions, its response to domestic violence, and a program in which people were forcibly displaced from their homes (the “forced resettlement program”) in 2000-2001.