Uzbekistan's President visits Brussels

Yesterday Uzbekistan’s President Karimov was welcomed by the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to Brussels, amid strong condemnation from NGOs on Uzbekistan’s human rights record.

The EU is keen to strengthen relations with Uzbekistan and an agreement was signed to establish an EU Delegation office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

However President Barroso did raise human rights concerns and urged the President Karimov to allow an International Labour Organization monitoring mission to the country to address child labour. Anti-Slavery has called on the Government of Uzbekistan to accept this mission but they rejected the ILO’s recommendation late last year.

Karimov's visit drew a protest outside the European Commission headquarters yesterday, where several prominent Uzbek human rights defenders spoke up about the situation in their country.