TASHKENT, April 5 (RIA Novosti) - Uzbekistan has made progress in human rights, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said during his official visit to Tashkent on Monday.
Uzbekistan has already abolished the death penalty and signed more than 60 international human rights agreements, and this is significant progress, Ban told journalists before leaving the Uzbek capital during his six-day Central Asian tour. Ban added, however, that the international human rights agreements need to be implemented in the country.
"You have an important place in the universal agreements that bind us as a community of nations," Ban said in a public speech in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. "It is time to deliver. To put them fully into practice."
The UN chief urged Uzbekistan's government to continue its promises in human rights and develop civil society, as well as allow groups of independent experts in human rights to enter the country.
Western experts and politicians have for a long time accused Uzbekistan of violations in human rights, including torture and political repression. Dissidents and independent journalists face serious problems in their activities when working in Uzbekistan.
Independent international observers have never supervised elections in the country. Opposition parties are basically non-existent in Uzbekistan.
