Miami Student

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Campus

Nozima Kamalova speaks on personal liberty and security in Uzbekistan Wednesday.

Guest lecturer Nozima Kamalova spoke on the civil rights injustices in her native country of Uzbekistan Wednesday afternoon in Harrison Hall at Miami University. During her talk, she focused primarily on how personal liberty and personal security are balanced in a modern world.

"If you sacrifice any liberty for security you will not have either," she said, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin.

Kamalova, a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, said it is universally accepted that human rights must be balanced along with security, but in Uzbekistan only the elite enjoy both.

She explained that the Uzbek government violates the civil rights of its citizens in a number of ways. The most prominent violations are those upon the freedoms of religion and association, the right to defense and the freedom from torture.

Kamalova said the Uzbek government often unfairly targets members of "extremist" religions as terrorists or accuses political opponents of terrorism to justify violent action against them.

Kamalova conceded that many people do join some of the extremist factions, but they do not believe in the groups' ideals. Instead, they join simply to have an income, as the vast majority of the nation's population lives in poverty.

Also, Kamalova said organizations that want to support civil rights are often expelled from the nation, as a civil society is seen as a threat to the stability of the authoritarian regime.

In regards to the human right to defense, Kamalova said it is difficult for those accused of crimes to receive a fair trial.

"In many cases, defendants have no real defense," she said.

According to Kamalova, public defense lawyers are apathetic toward their clients, ready to sign any document the state offers them without consultation or even testify against their clients.

Perhaps worst of all, Kamalova said, is that people in Uzbekistan are subject to state sanctioned torture in the form of burning, rape, electrocution and the deliberate spread of disease amongst other methods.

The torture is used against any perceived "enemies" of the government as a method of suppression and information gathering.

"Torture (in Uzbekistan) is systematic and widespread," Kamalova said. "We know freedom from torture is a universal law, but in Uzbekistan, these freedoms are not respected."

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