On the reform path: Uzbekistan opens up after years of isolation

After death of President Islam Karimov, who ruled for decades, government attempts to be more transparent and fair. “The reform agenda that the president launched in February last year, the Action Strategy, is very well aligned with what the UN is working towards globally through Agenda 2030,” Helena Fraser, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Uzbekistan, told Al Jazeera. “It includes the reform of the judiciary, reform of public administration, liberalisation of the economy, education, health and social protection reforms, and then interestingly, the fifth pillar is about security, tolerance and constructive foreign policy.” The reforms have encompassed all spheres of social and political life from freeing the country’s currency to normalising relations with its neighbours. “The most notable developments on human rights in the little more than two years of Mirziyoyev’s presidency has been the release of approximately 30 or more high-profile political prisoners, the easing of some restrictions on the freedom of speech and assembly and in that area we’ve seen the emergence of a fairly dynamic media environment as compared to what used to exist,” Steve Swerdlow, Human Rights Watch Central Asia researcher, told Al Jazeera. “The worst outcome would be that the government does everything that it has been encouraged to do for decades, whether it’s on human rights, health systems, the rule of law, tax reforms, or gender violence, and we then walk away and say that we are not going to support it,” Fraser said.