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<p>In October 2017 Dr Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion
or belief, spent two weeks in Uzbekistan. He was received by the government, travelled
to the regions, met religious groups, civil society and visited Jaslyk prison. We
agree with his initial report which recognised Uzbekistan's relatively tolerant approach
to the major religions and acknowledged the measures taken over the past year. These
were mainly towards the Muslim communities; the review of prisoners which has led
to several releases; the removal of 16000 names from a government watch list for suspected
religious extremism, along with the reintegration of those individuals and rehabilitation
of prisoners. His report also set out recommendations for reducing the legal constraints
around religious practice.</p><p>We regularly raise individual human rights cases
with the Uzbek authorities and play an active and visible part in human rights activities
in Uzbekistan. We have stressed the importance of constructive, private dialogue on
human rights issues, including the freedom of religious expression. On 27 October
our Ambassador highlighted the importance of freedom of religion or belief and Dr
Shaheed's recommendations in a video on Facebook. We expectDr Shaheed's report to
the UN Human Rights Council in March.</p>
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