Independent nongovernmental organizations play constructive roles in many countries in helping to safeguard basic rights and media freedoms -- plus ensuring the dignity of various ethnic and social groups, including vulnerable people, which has been especially important during the coronavirus pandemic.
These are all areas where, since Shavkat Mirziyoev became Uzbekistan’s leader in September 2016, the Uzbek government has been saying it wants to see improvement.
But while some NGOs with connections to the government have been registered in just one day, there are some independent NGOs that have been attempting to register their organizations for months and then there are those who have had their registration documents rejected 10, even 20 times already.
On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL Media-Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on the obstacles faced by independent NGOs in Uzbekistan.
This week's guests are: from Uzbekistan, Dilmira Matyakubowa, co-director of Uzinvestigations and a fellow at the London-based Foreign Policy Center; originally from Uzbekistan, Dilmurad Yusupov is currently a PhD candidate at Sussex University, where he is specializing in Developmental Studies, and also a co-founder of the Tashkent-based NGO Sharoit, which helps disabled people; speaking from Tashkent, veteran Central Asia watcher Steve Swerdlow, who is a rights lawyer and associate professor of the practice of human rights at the University of Southern California; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
