PRESIDENT KARIMOV SIGNS ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING LAW

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000462 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR G/TIP SHEREEN FARAJ AND MEGAN HALL; SCA FOR JESSICA MAZZONE; DRL; INL FOR ANDREW BUHLER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KWMN KCRM UZ SUBJECT: PRESIDENT KARIMOV SIGNS ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING LAW REF: A. TASHKENT 351 ¶B. 07 TASHKENT 1806 ¶C. TASHKENT 442 ¶1. (U) On April 17 President Karimov signed Uzbekistan's first comprehensive anti-trafficking in persons legislation into law. This marked the final step in a surprisingly rapid legislative process. The bill was introduced in January, passed by the lower chamber on March 13, and by the Senate on March 27 (ref A). The timeline was consistent with the promises the Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlined last October (ref B). The need for a counter-trafficking law was a central element on the TIP Action Plan presented to the Government of Uzbekistan after its Tier 3 rating on the 2007 TIP Report. Nodira Karimova, the Director of the key anti-trafficking nongovernmental organization Istiqbolli Avlod, hailed the new legislation as a major step forward. Comment: -------------- ¶2. (U) It is significant that the Government of Uzbekistan has finally stepped up to the plate to implement a key element of the TIP Action Plan. This is the centerpiece of the Government of Uzbekistan's concerted effort to address the TIP issue, and builds on previously documented increases in public awareness materials on state-run mass media, more convictions, better cooperation in providing data, and a steadily improved working relationship with NGOs on the ground. ¶3. (SBU) We expect the Government of Uzbekistan to promote this major development aggressively, and already on April 18 the main state-controlled newspaper Narodnoe Slovo (People's Word) prominently published a Russian-language edition of the law on the front page in a unique two-sided format to allow interested parties to clip and save as a reference manual. We will analyze the content of the law and report separately. Implementation of this new law will certainly feature prominently at an upcoming major TIP-themed conference in Tashkent this May being organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). ¶4. (SBU) Even if the law proves to be imperfect, the Government of Uzbekistan will be self-congratulatory about moving toward what it sees as the mainstream and will seek positive feedback. Uzbekistan will also likely express a willingness to work with Western countries on implementing further reforms, as it did recently with habeas corpus issues. This is the best opportunity since the inception of the TIP Report to build a cooperative rather than adversarial tone on the trafficking in persons issue. As with other recent significant legislative actions such as the adoption of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions (ref C),we will closely monitor implementation to see if this law really has legs; however, in the meantime it is in our interests to recognize the progress to date with a promotion to Tier 2. Such recognition of progress may help spur further substantive reform and serve as an important building block in our slowly reemerging relationship. NORLAND