Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Uzbekistani government to release Valijon Kalonov, a Uyghur activist who has been forcibly detained in a psychiatric facility since 2021. Kalonov, a blogger critical of both the Uzbek and Chinese governments, was initially arrested on charges of using social media to “threaten public safety” and insult the president of Uzbekistan.
Following his arrest, state-appointed psychiatrists diagnosed Kalonov with “chronic mental illness” and obsessive-compulsive disorder. As a result, he was confined to psychiatric institutions, first at Samarkand Regional Neuropsychiatric Dispensary, and later transferred to Djizak Regional Psychoneurological Dispensary.
A United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has condemned Kalonov’s imprisonment, declaring it arbitrary and a violation of international human rights law. The WGAD concluded that Uzbekistan had violated Kalonov’s rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN Human Rights Committee has specifically stated that detaining individuals as punishment for exercising free speech is unlawful under Article 9 of the ICCPR.
HRW also highlighted the lack of adequate legal representation during Kalonov’s trial, noting that his lawyer failed to challenge the forced psychiatric treatment, despite acknowledging that Kalonov does not have a mental illness.
Kalonov’s activism largely focused on the plight of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region, where widespread human rights abuses, including mass detentions, have led some nations to classify the situation as genocide. Uzbekistan’s use of forced psychiatric detention, particularly against government critics, has raised significant concerns about human rights in the country.
This case further illustrates the broader issue of Uzbekistan’s treatment of dissidents, with HRW calling for immediate action to address the unjust detention of Kalonov.
Source: Conor Doran, Jurist.com, Human Rights Watch, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
