UZBEKISTAN

Government
In 1991, Uzbekistan became an independent country, after decades of Soviet rule. The population is 25 million, which makes it the most populous of the Central Asian countries. The major languages are Russian, Uzbek, and Tajik. The major religion is Islam, and the Communist Party leads the current government. While the constitution provides for separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers, the president retains a significant amount of executive power - including the ability to dismiss or create a government, fire the cabinet, recall diplomats, and declare war. President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov has been in office since 1989 (elected by Soviet Uzbekistan) and has secured two referendums to extend his presidency until 2005. Election monitors concluded that the previous elections were neither free nor fair. He maintains a tight control over all political opposition and represses all religious organizations. Many political parties that are religious in affiliation, such as Islamic parties, have been banned due to the 'separation of church and state' clause. The Uzbekistan government has often sited economic liberation as more important than that of civil society development. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that attempt to gain registered status with the government are denied unless they have direct affiliation with the current regime.

Economy
During the last few years, Uzbekistan has attempted to re-establish its old trade routes and prosperous cities. The average annual income is 610 USD (with many people earning less than $1 a day,) and unemployment is very high and on the rise. According to the 2003 US State Department country profile report for Uzbekistan, 40-80 percent of the population has fallen below the poverty line since the country's independence from the former Soviet Union. The government's controls over trade and commerce, tight border controls, and highly subsidized commodities have all hampered Uzbekistan's' ability to become a competitive economic player in the region. This instability has stagnated foreign investment.

Media and Human Rights
Media is theoretically free, however many journalists have been intimidated and arrested. There are no independent news outlets. A national survey reports that Uzbeks do not read their papers and do not regard the media as free or able to provide truthful, uncensored news. Civil liberties are limited, and police brutality is widely documented. While such activity is illegal, both the police and the National Security Service (NSS) torture, beat, and mistreat detainees. This torture includes suffocation, electric shock, rape, and other sexual abuse. The 'secret' police and prosecutors are said to often falsify evidence and conduct illicit searches in addition to employing methods of torture. Judges, who are beholden to the government in every way (despite belonging to no particular political party,) rarely question such illegally obtained evidence for fear they will be re-called.

Gender Issues
Due to the extreme difficulty in registering a nonprofit, there are few women's organizations within Uzbekistan. The majority of these organizations rely on foreign assistance, and when that is gone the organizations often fail completely. Discrimination against women is widespread, with traditional and societal values upholding this discrimination. Domestic violence, unemployment, and trafficking are three main problems confronting the women of Uzbekistan. While the constitution guarantees ethnic and gender equality, there are no laws prohibiting domestic violence, and such abuse is considered a private, family affair. Human rights organizations claim that the problem of domestic violence is very high, but to date there are no statistics documenting the problem. According to women's groups, police often threaten or discourage women against making charges against their husbands. One police officer observed that up to 60 percent of calls received by the station are from potentially abused women. However, organizations have reported that government openness about the problem has increased and that education about the issue is on the rise.

Trafficking and economic destitution go hand-in-hand. There are no laws that prohibit women from working. However, due to cultural restrictions, most women remain at home. Higher education is very expensive, and families usually only pay for their sons to attend school. Young women who do enter the university are encouraged to pursue degrees traditionally viewed as 'woman degrees,' such as sociology or literature.

Young women often marry before the age of 20 and occupy the lowest place in the family. It has been documented that many of these young brides commit suicide as a result of abuse and pressure from their husbands' families. In many cases, the girl's family chooses her husband, sometimes before her 10th birthday. There are no laws pertaining to trafficking in Uzbekistan, and to date no one has been convicted of the offense. Some women, especially young girls, are attracted to the offers of working abroad. Traffickers prey on the lack of knowledge about trafficking and the total economic destitution of these girls in order to convince them to leave the country. The majority of these girls are then sent to places such as Dubai or Turkey, where they are forced to work in abusive conditions as sex slaves for little or no money. Many do not even attempt to escape because of the stigma associated with 'trafficked girls' and prostitution. The ones that do attempt to leave are often beaten back into submission or simply killed. While government victim assistance programs are being put into place, many victims are still harassed at the border by guards or police demanding money in exchange for new passports and entry documents.

FAIR Fund in Uzbekistan
FAIR Fund currently partners with the Anti-Trafficking Support and Assistant Center for Girls (Istiqbolli Avlod) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Support Center offers assistance to trafficking victims seeking to be returned to their family, young women considering an offer to live abroad, and to families of trafficked victims. While they also focus on preventing HIV/AIDS and trafficking amongst commercial sex workers, the Support Center focuses the majority of its work on girls and young women who are recently graduating high school and college. FAIR Fund will support the establishment of further educational seminars for school-aged girls in the rural regions of Uzbekistan, where most girls have never heard of trafficking.