Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The Fifth Samarkand Human Rights Forum has opened in Tashkent under the theme “60th Anniversary of the International Covenants on Human Rights and 40th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development: Global Partnership for Human Dignity, Equality and Sustainable Development.”
More than 200 representatives of international, regional and national organizations are taking part in the event in person and online. They include representatives of 10 international organizations, eight regional structures and eight national human rights institutions from foreign countries, as well as experts, civil society representatives, media and business representatives.
The opening ceremony featured speeches by Tanzila Narbayeva, Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis; Nurdinjon Ismoilov, Speaker of the Legislative Chamber; and Sabine Machl, UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan.
Messages from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and Mirjana Spoljaric, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were read out. Video addresses were also shown from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Maria Telalian, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The first day in Tashkent will feature two plenary sessions and seven parallel thematic sessions. On the second day, the forum will move to Samarkand, where the final plenary session will discuss and adopt the outcome document.
The forum is organized by the National Human Rights Centre of the Republic of Uzbekistan jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE, the ICRC and the International Centre for Development and Justice.
The forum is being conducted in Uzbek, English and Russian.
