The rights of young people focus of the Samarkand Human Rights Forum

A two-day online high-level event focusing on the rights of young people, the Samarkand Forum on Human Rights, was held on 12 and 13 August 2020. The meeting, supported by the OSCE Project Co-Ordinator in Uzbekistan, was attended by representatives of the OSCE Secretariat, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other OSCE field operations. The event was co-organized with the Government of Uzbekistan represented by the National Human Rights Centre of Uzbekistan, the UN Country Team and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The Samarkand Forum on Human Rights is the continuation of the Asian Forum which took place in 2018 in Samarkand.

Over 1000 participants from around the world attended the Forum, which was devoted to the rights of youth. The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, proposed to develop an international convention on the rights of youth, during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in 2017 that gave momentum for the topic. The Forum was an inclusive event with the participation of high-level officials from international organizations, representatives of national partners such as the newly-established Youth Parliament of Uzbekistan, the Youth Union of Uzbekistan from different regions and national human rights institutions.

During the event, participants covered issues related to the development of international standards for youth rights, the linkage between youth rights and sustainable development goals, human rights education for the youth, as well as the role of youth in peace and security. The draft document of the Convention on the Rights of the Youth was also discussed.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, John MacGregor, noted that since 2017, the Government of Uzbekistan has pursued a very ambitious reform agenda, fully consistent with OSCE commitments across all three dimensions of security. He said that within this perspective of comprehensive security, considerable attention has been paid to youth and human rights. “Given the OSCE’s role as a co-organizer of the first Samarkand Asian Human Rights Forum two years ago, along with the related major international initiatives put forward by Uzbekistan, we, at the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, are delighted to strongly support this very special Samarkand Human Rights Forum with its focus on Youth Rights within the UN-75 framework”.

The next Forum is planned to be held in 2022.