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Uzbekistan: Human Rights

Volume 482: debated on Tuesday 4 November 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the next EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue will take place; and if he will make a statement. (229376)

The third EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue is due to take place in mid-2009. The second EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue took place on 5 June 2008 under the Slovenian presidency.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Government of Uzbekistan on the detention of journalists Salijon Abdurahmanov and Yusuf Juma; and if he will make a statement. (229377)

Officials from our embassy in Tashkent have met Salijon Abdurahmanov and Yusuf Juma on a number of occasions. We are deeply concerned by their arrests and are following their situation closely. Both cases were raised at the EU-Uzbekistan Human Rights Dialogue on 5 June 2008.

Together with our EU partners, we continue to urge the Uzbek authorities to implement fully their international human rights obligations.