he Swedish OSCE Chairpersonship and ODIHR held the Third Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on 12-13 July 2021. The theme of the Meeting: Digital Technologies and Human Rights – Opportunities and Challenges 

Distinguished colleagues! Dear Mr. Chairman!

My name is Hasanboy Burhanov. I am the founder of the political opposition movement Erkin O’zbekiston (Free Uzbekistan). As the doors of Uzbekistan have remained closed even to the secular opposition for the past 30 years, the headquarters of our movement is now based in Dusseldorf.

The development of information and digital technologies has enabled the authorities of authoritarian countries to move to a more advanced level in combating dissent against their citizens. As it is well-known, in autumn 2016,  Shavkat Mirziyoyev carried out an unconstitutional seizure of power and became the illegitimate president of Uzbekistan. It was from this period that the country has been deeply influenced by Russia and China.

A huge troll factory was set up in Uzbekistan, to perform two major tasks: the first is encouraging subversive information terrorism against political opponents, and the second is creating a positive image of Mirziyoyev on the world scene. The Kremlin’s troll factory is taking an active part in this process. The Kremlin has also been quite actively interfering in the forthcoming presidential election in Uzbekistan.

As a result of this activity, during the sanctions period, criminal oligarchs close to the Kremlin using Uzbekistan as a bypass channel, gained access to international credit funds and Western high-tech pools. The Uzbek authorities have been successfully implementing China’s experience with facial recognition technologies, to track civil society activists. Uzbekistan has already approved a repressive information restriction bill that significantly infringes on the rights of citizens.

Let’s pay attention to the case of Fozilhuzha Orifkhuzhaev. He blogged on social networks, representing moderate religious views. He was arrested for 15 days for his activism on social networks, and now the Uzbek security services are fabricating a criminal case against him under heavy charges.

In this connection, our movement demands the immediate release of the blogger Fozilhuzha Orifkhuzhaev, detained by the Uzbek authorities.

We also demand that the Russian authorities stop the information war against Uzbekistan and stop interfering into the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

We call on international organizations to act as a guarantor of the return of the Erkin O’zbekiston  political opposition movement to our homeland so that we can openly and directly participate in the political and public life of Uzbekistan.

Thank you for your attention,

Hasanboy Burhanov – Founder of the political opposition movement Erkin O’zbekiston (Free Uzbekistan)