8 December 2011 On the occasion of the upcoming December 10 International Human Rights Day, ECCHR, the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF), INKOTA-netzwerk, terre des hommes Deutschland, Brot für die Welt, the Eurasian Transition Group, and the Uzbekistan Press Freedom Group have sent an Open Letter to German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel on the human rights situation in Uzbekistan. The letter urges the German government, through a series of specific recommendations, to commit to a strict human rights-centered and outspoken diplomacy on Uzbekistan, one of today’s most repressive regimes in the world.  

From state-sponsored child labor during the cotton harvesting involving from 1.5 to 2 million Uzbek children each year, to the subversion of basic civil and human rights, including the systematic use of torture, the Uzbekistan human rights record is atrocious. The country has closed its doors to United Nations Special Rapporteurs, the International Labour Organization, and recently expelled the last independent international human rights NGO from Uzbekistan. Yet, the government of Uzbek President Karimov, thanks to the profitable collaboration with international cotton traders on the one hand, and NATO allies such as Germany interested in Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan on the other hand, thinks it has the necessary bargaining power to continue violating international human rights with complete impunity. According to the seven NGOs this situation is neither acceptable, nor sustainable. A concrete plan of action must be adopted by the German government, in coordination with the European Union, to ensure accountability for human rights violations in Uzbekistan.