Tag Archives: human rights

Uzbek cotton harvest begins

SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Opposition Uzbek websites reported that the annual cotton harvest had begun. This is important as human rights groups have accused Uzbekistan of using forced human labour to pick the cotton. One news outlet, uznews.net, said 40% of medical staff in one region had been sent out to pick cotton.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

UN torture team cuts short visit to Azerbaijan

SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A United Nations team sent to Azerbaijan to investigate allegations of torture in state jails cut short its trip after it said Azerbaijani officials blocked access to sites. Azerbaijan has come under pressure over alleged human rights abuses.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Uzbekistan invests in cotton

SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s state-run cotton company will spend $1b building its own cotton processing plant, media quoted a senior official as saying. Uzbekistan wants to double its cotton processing capacity. Human rights workers have accused Uzbekistan of suing slave labour to pick its cotton harvest.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)

Council of Europe criticise Azerbaijan

SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an email interview with the US-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, the Council of Europe’s human rights chief, Nils Muiznieks, said the recent arrests of journalists and rights workers were unacceptable.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)

Azerbaijani security forces raid NGO

SEPT. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – IREX, the education NGO, said Azerbaijani security forces raided its office in Baku, confiscating documents and computers. Civil society groups in Azerbaijan are under pressure. The US-funded NDI closed its office in July and Transparency International has said that its bank accounts are frozen.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)

Opposition journalist arrested in Azerbaijan

AUG. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Azerbaijan arrested opposition journalist Seymur Hazi on suspicion of hooliganism. Mr Hazi’s supporters said the charges were politically motivated. The US and the UN have accused Azerbaijani officials of harassing opposition activists and journalists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)

HRW marks missing Turkmen

AUG. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) marked the UN’s International Day of the Disappeared by highlighting the dozens of people who have disappeared in Turkmenistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Many families of the disappeared simply don’t know whether their loved ones are dead or alive,” HRW said in a statement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)

Azerbaijani journalist beaten

AUG. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that another independent journalist has been beaten up in Azerbaijan. HRW said that several men attacked Ilgar Nasibov in his office in the Nakhchivan province. Mr Nasibov was left unconscious. HRW linked the attacked to Mr Nasibov’s anti-government stance.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 197, published on Aug. 27 2014)

HRW criticise Blair on Kazakh President advice

AUG. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups have criticised former British PM Tony Blair for penning a letter in 2012 to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev giving him advice on how to refer in a speech to deadly clashes between police and anti- government demonstrators. Mr Blair has been an adviser to Mr Nazarbayev since 2011.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 197, published on Aug. 27 2014)

Protesting against Uzbek cotton

AUG. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – People protesting against the alleged use of child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields have targeted South Korea’s Daewoo International Corporation, media reported. According to demonstrators Daewoo buys 5% of Uzbekistan’s cotton. The protests are a reminder of just how sensitive the use of Uzbek cotton is in western clothing.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 196, published on Aug. 20 2014)