A/HRC/4/33/Add.2 Page 119 Uzbekistan Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur in the report of his visit to Uzbekistan in November and December 2002 (E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2, para. 70). 668. Taking note with satisfaction of the numerous replies and abundant information sent to him by the State authorities of Uzbekistan on individual cases as well as on follow-up to his predecessor’s recommendations, but also noting the fact that his mandate continued to receive serious allegations of torture by Uzbek law enforcement officials, the Special Rapporteur, by letter dated 19 May 2006, asked for an invitation to conduct a visit in order to gather follow-up information on the implementation of the report on the 2002 visit to Uzbekistan, with a view to assessing independently and objectively how the situation has evolved since then, and continuing the dialogue with the authorities the aim of preventing and combating torture and ill-treatment. 669. In the period following the publication of the Special Rapporteur’s follow-up report on 21 March 200611, the United Nations Secretary-General12, the Committee on the Rights of the Child13, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders14, as well as regional organizations have expressed serious concern over the human rights situation in Uzbekistan, including the question of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Moreover, with respect to the events in May 2005 in Andijan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that there is strong, consistent and credible testimony to the effect that Uzbek military and security forces committed grave human rights violations. The fact that the Government has rejected an international inquiry into the Andijan events, independent scrutiny of the related proceedings, and that there is no internationally accepted account of what happened, is of serious concern. The present follow-up report does not intend to duplicate information contained in the reports mentioned above. 670. Updated information on the implementation of the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur provided by the Government of Uzbekistan was circulated at the Human Rights Council on 25 September 200515. The same document was brought to the Special Rapporteur’s attention on 12 October 2006. The information contained therein mainly relates to the period from 2002 to 2005 and was already taken into consideration in the Special Rapporteur’s followup report of March 2006. Further information was provided by the Government on 1 February 2007. 671. Recommendation (a) stated: First and foremost, the highest authorities need to publicly condemn torture in all its forms. The highest authorities, in particular those responsible for law enforcement activities, should declare unambiguously that they will not tolerate torture and similar ill-treatment by public officials and that those in command at the time abuses are perpetrated will be held personally responsible for the abuses. The authorities need to take vigorous measures to make such declarations credible and make clear that the culture of impunity must end. 11 E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 A/61/526 of 18 October 2006 13 CRC/C/UZB/CO/2 of 2 June 2006 14 E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.1 of 22 March 2006; E/CN.4/2006/95/Add. 5 of 6 March 2006 15 A/HRC/2/G/4 of 25 September 2006. 12