Uzbek Human Rights Defenders Denounce Unlawful Arrests

Statement by the Alliance for Human Rights in Uzbekistan, 9 November 2015:

Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan members Elena Urlaeva and Malokhat Eshonkulova call on the police of Uzbekistan to cease unlawful arrests of journalists and human rights defenders.

During the springtime cotton field weeding season and through the end of the autumn cotton harvest , police arrested Ms. Urlaeva and Ms. Eshonkulova multiple times for documenting state-led forced labor. Police arrested the human rights defenders in Khorezm, Syrdarya and Tashkent regions, confiscated the memory sticks of their phones and cameras, and subjected the women to body-cavity searches in the police station.

Human rights activists in Uzbekistan call on the police to stop the unlawful arrests and to publicly register arrests made.