An annual EU-Central Asia Civil Society Forum has met since 2019.  The Forum is envisaged as a platform to allow civil society representatives to contribute to the development of the EU-Central Asia partnership. The Forum gathers civil society representatives, researchers, media experts, private sector and government experts to discuss ideas, generate new and innovative proposals and recommendations on how civil society can further contribute and be more involved in the implementation of the EU Central Asia Strategy at the local level through programmes and at policy level.

A regional Civil Society Facility for Central Asia, with an amount of EUR 4.5 million, was launched in September 2024. The two main objectives of the Facility are to:

1. enhance the participation and competences of Central Asian CSOs in regional policy processes, by facilitating their participation in structured dialogues among each other and with the EU, including during the annual Civil Society fora;
2. support the development of capacities and, thus, the engagement of Central Asian youth representatives in national and regional policy processes.

EU-Central Asia partnership for the promotion of peace, democracy, human rights

The promotion of human rights and democracy is an important pillar of EU-Central Asia cooperation on a regional and a multilateral level. The EU and the Central Asian countries also partner to promote peace and security at the global, regional and country level.

The EU contributes to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Central Asian region through a wide range of mechanisms, such as:

• Bilateral human rights dialogues
• Capacity building and financial support for Central Asian civil society, such as the EU-Central Asia Civil Society Forum and the EU Civil Society Facility for Central Asia

Human rights dialogues between the EU and Central Asian partners cover many important issues, including:

• Fundamental rights and freedoms
• Discrimination
• Gender equality
• Rights of women
• Rights of the child
• Rights of national and other minorities
• Rights of LGBTIQ persons
• Protection of human rights defenders and journalists.

The EU attaches significant importance to the protection and promotion of labour rights. Our main tools for promoting labour standards are EU trade instruments – in particular the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP, for Tajikistan) and its special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance (GSP+, for Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), – as well as different forms of bilateral dialogue with our Central Asian counterparts, provided by the respective bilateral agreements we have with them.

Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) also often labelled as 'disinformation' – is a growing political and security challenge for the EU and Central Asia.