148 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 refugees to return voluntarily to Uzbekistan and that access to those returned has been restricted. Government Crackdown on Human Rights Defenders – Update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2007) Finally, the organization has been concerned by the refusal of the authorities in Uzbekistan to impose a moratorium on executions, despite a presidential decree introducing the abolition of the death penalty from January 2008. Silencing dissent The briefing paper also set forth a set of recommendations for each of the four areas of concern highlighted and presented individual cases to illustrate the organization’s concerns and patterns of persecution and abuse. AI urged the EU Presidency to raise these key issues with its Uzbekistani counterparts Relations between Uzbekistan the UN and Fourth Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) In March the HRC voted to accept the recommendations of its Working Group on Situations to discontinue consideration of Uzbekistan under the HRC’s confidential 1503 Procedure. This meant that the mandate of the UN Independent Expert on Uzbekistan appointed under the confidential 1503 procedure was also terminated and that Uzbekistan’s human rights record would no longer be under special scrutiny by the HRC. AI had expressed serious concerns in relation to the Uzbekistani authorities’ repeated failure to address grave human rights violations in their country. The human rights situation in Uzbekistan was included as one of those requiring the urgent attention and action of the HRC in a document prepared by AI for the HRC's fourth session (see AI Index: IOR 41/004/2007). AI had urged the HRC to continue to be seized of the situation of human rights in Uzbekistan. Amnesty International The situation for human rights defenders continued to deteriorate and there was concern that the authorities might further restrict their freedom of speech, assembly and movement in the run-up to the December Presidential elections. In the first four months of 2007 two human rights defenders and an opposition political activist were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on what appeared to be politically-motivated charges. All three cases were linked either directly or indirectly to the 2005 Andizhan events; Umida Niazova was charged in connection with a report on the mass killings in Andizhan by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) which was found on her laptop; Gulbahor Turaeva, who had worked as a pathologist in Andizhan, had old NGOs that she had seen hundreds of bodies in makeshift morgues; Isroil Kholdorov had told international media about alleged mass graves. Those human rights activists not forced into exile and not in detention were routinely monitored by uniformed or plainclothes law enforcement officers, called in for questioning to their local police stations, placed under house arrest or otherwise prevented from attending meetings with foreign diplomats, visiting foreign delegations or from taking part in peaceful demonstrations. Human rights defenders continued to report being threatened by members of the security services for carrying out legitimate activities, several reported being assaulted and beaten and detained by law enforcement officers or people they suspected working for the security services. AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007