Member of the British House of Lords starts visit to Uzbekistan

Baroness arrived in Tashkent early on 19 October, where she will have bilateral talks with high-level officials in the Uzbek Government and Parliament over the next three days.

Baroness Stern has been an independent member of the House of Lords, the upper House of the British parliament, since 1999. From 2004 to 2008 she was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights. She now chairs the Parliamentary Group on the Abolition of the Death Penalty and the Parliamentary Group on Tajikistan.

She is a vice-chair of the Parliamentary Groups on Drug Policy Reform and on Women, Peace and Security. In January 2014 she became Co-Chair of KNOW violence: A global learning initiative to combat violence against children. She is Honorary President of Penal Reform International (PRI), a non-governmental organisation promoting penal reform throughout the world which she founded with others in 1989.

During her three days visit to Uzbekistan Baroness Stern will speak at the International Conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of establishment of the National Human Rights Institutions of Uzbekistan and have a series of ministerial and parliamentary meetings. She will also continue her work with the government of Uzbekistan on the important topic of criminal justice reform and torture prevention.