Official sensitivity about Uzbekistan's poor human rights record appears to have led to a decision to close the Tashkent office of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). Although the Uzbek government had initially allowed the organisation to start operating in Uzbekistan in 1996, staff were frequently subject to police harassment, and faced difficulties in obtaining work visas and accreditation documents.

The government has been running a persistent campaign against HRW in recent years. The authorities deported a consultant for the organisation in July 2009, and a researcher was physically attacked in mysterious circumstances in December 2009. The head of HRW's Uzbekistan office, Steve Swerdlow, was able to spend just two months of 2010 in the country, and was denied a work permit in December 2010. On March 10th the Supreme Court informed HRW that the Ministry of Justice was to end the organisation's presence in Uzbekistan.

The EU, which had been embarrassed by adverse publicity surrounding the visit of Mr Karimov to meet EU officials in Brussels, the Belgian capital, in January (February 2011, The political scene), responded by postponing the visit of an EU delegation to Uzbekistan. During its meetings with Mr Karimov in Brussels the EU had raised the issue of HRW's ability to operate, and had also raised the cases of three imprisoned human rights activists: Isroiljon Kholdorov, Norboy Kholjigitoy, and Agzam Farmonov.