11 December 2024, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Today the Delegation of the European Union in Uzbekistan together with the Embassy of the United States of America, the British Embassy and the Embassy of Switzerland marked the International Human Rights Day and on this occasion held a round table “Registration, Functioning and Financing of the Civil Society Organizations in Uzbekistan”. The event was attended by the representatives of various state institutions of Uzbekistan, civil society actors, members of the diplomatic community, international experts, lawyers, journalists and grass roots activists.  

In his welcoming remarks, Toivo Klaar, Ambassador of the European Union to Uzbekistan underlined:

“The EU values our cooperation with civil society and NGOs in Uzbekistan. We consider them indispensable partners in our cooperation programmes as well as important facilitators in improving our policy-making”.

On 10 December, every year, the Human Rights Day is celebrated around the world.  The European Union joins forces with partners to commemorate the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to reaffirm its commitment to ensure that Human Rights are upheld and respected globally.

Participants of the roundtable had an opportunity to discuss the situation with registration, functioning and financing of CSOs, sharing opinions on trends and obstacles and the way forward. The EU side highlighted the importance of a vibrant civil society in the reform process as well as in the framework of the GSP+ commitments and expressed readiness to provide expertise to develop a fair, transparent and simplified system for registering NGOs.

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European countries. It is founded on the values ​​of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of individuals, belonging to minorities. The EU acts at the global level to promote sustainable development of society, the environment and the economy.