While lesbians and bisexual women are at risk of discrimination and abuse, homosexuality is distinctly punished. Same-sex relations between women are not punishable by law in Uzbekistan. The law, beyond violating international human rights standards in itself, serves as a cudgel with which Uzbek police harass and extort men in Uzbekistan, regardless of their actual sexual orientation.Ī new report published by the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), the Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM), and the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) calls on Uzbek authorities to decriminalize consensual sexual relations between men. Those charged under Uzbekistan’s Article 120 can be sentenced to up to three years imprisonment, and gay and bisexual men and transgender people are subject to threats, abuse, and torture.
Uzbekistan is one of two former Soviet republics where consensual sexual relations between men is punishable by law.
