Outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Calls for Visit to Uzbekistan

At a briefing at the United Nations on October 25, Manfred Nowak, the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, reported that he was unable to secure an invitation to visit Uzbekistan, despite several requests to the Uzbek government during his tenure.

The previous UN rapporteur on torture, Theo Van Boven, visited Uzbekistan in 2002.

Nowak said that he had received a number of communications from Uzbekistan responding to recommendations made following the last trip, claiming that the judicial system had been reformed so as to prevent and punish torture.

Meanwhile, human rights organizations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had been sending him reports indicating that nothing had changed, so a new trip was in order, Nowak said. He urged the incoming Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, to follow up with Tashkent and seek an invitation to visit the country's places of detention. Mendez said he would pursue this and other recommendations made by his predecessor, and said that despite governments' need to combat terrorism, under the UN Convention Against Torture, no state had the right to engage in torture for any reason.

While habeas corpus was introduced in Uzbekistan in 2008, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have reported that it has not been implemented as the judiciary is not independent.

In recent years, Nowak made a number of inquiries to Uzbekistan regarding allegations of torture, including the case of the Soatova sisters, one of whom claimed she was raped by a prison guard. She later gave birth prematurely in detention. Nowak said the Uzbek government was responsible for the practices of "systematic" torture, which he explained meant either practices the government directly engaged in, or condoned or tolerated through negligence.

He also said that he had contacted Kazakhstan about his concerns for the return to Uzbekistan of a number of persons who had claimed refugee status, on the grounds that they could face torture if returned.

Nowak sharply condemned members of the UN Human Rights Council for placing pressure on him and other independent experts as they attempted to carry out their work. He also criticized the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for engaging in what he characterized as "self-censorship" for conveying to the rapporteurs the pressure they felt from states.

"I didn't expect the parent body [the Human Rights Council] to criticize me for having done reports, instead of criticizing the states with torture and inhumane treatment," he said. The Council was "spending all its time censoring the independent experts," he said, and not condemning torture.

The summary record of Nowak's report to the General Assembly Third Committee can be found here and his last full report here. The briefing was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN and the Geneva-based Association for the Prevention of Torture.