Uzbekistan

National context

Uzbekistan is overwhelmingly Muslim—around 96 percent Sunni, following the Hanafi school—and strikingly young, with roughly two-thirds of the population under 35. Both facts shape how the state approaches religion, and both raise the stakes of getting that approach right in an increasingly connected world.

The country emerged from Soviet religious suppression in 1991 into a turbulent decade in which the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and related currents made extremism a pressing security concern. The state answered with an iron fist, and religious practice outside tightly drawn registration boundaries carried real risk.

Since 2016, under President Mirziyoyev, the direction has changed markedly. The United States had designated Uzbekistan a Country of Particular Concern from 2006 to 2017 before moving it to the Special Watch List, and removed it from that list in December 2020, determining that it no longer engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom. Churches, mosques, and religious educational institutes have been registered in numbers that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier; registration and reporting requirements have been simplified and made less costly; and crackdowns on unregistered communities have largely ceased. A State Policy Concept on Religion was adopted in February 2025. Alongside this, the state has invested in religious scholarship through the Imam Bukhari International Center in Samarkand, the Center of Islamic Civilization in Tashkent, the Imam Termezi International Research Center in Termez, and, since 2023, Khadijah al-Kubra, an Islamic educational institution for women and girls.

What remains unresolved is increasingly definitional rather than structural. Missionary activity and the distribution of religious materials remain restricted, while key legal terms—including “missionary activity” and “extremism”—still lack precise definition, leaving considerable discretion in the hands of officials responsible for enforcement.

The structural pressures are just as relevant. Uzbekistan is double-landlocked, many households depend on remittances from migrant workers abroad, and the same young population that gives the country its energy is reachable online by recruiters operating well beyond any national jurisdiction. A 2024 assessment delegation observed that as religious freedom expands, greater openness must be matched by stronger religious literacy, critical thinking, and responsible citizenship. Openness and resilience must grow together, which is precisely why the work of definition and education matters.

The Panel’s focus in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is where the Panel’s international dimension is most visible. The country has become not only a participant but also a convener, demonstrating how governments, religious communities, and civil society can work together to translate principles into lasting institutions.

Engage. The Dialogue of Declarations brings governments, religious leaders, scholars, law enforcement professionals, educators, and civil society practitioners into sustained conversation about what international declarations on religious freedom require in practice. Its second convening met in Tashkent and Samarkand in September 2025, hosted with the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan and the Committee for Religious Affairs. The framework is the Bukhara Declaration, adopted in 2022 and significant for grounding commitments to religious freedom in both international human rights principles and a Muslim-majority context. Participants examined declarations issued by Muslim-majority institutions between 2016 and 2024—Marrakesh, Bahrain, Makkah, Abu Dhabi, and Bukhara—not simply to compare texts, but to ask how their principles can be implemented through public institutions. The design is deliberately small-group and returns repeatedly to a single question: how does this work in practice?

Research. An assessment delegation traveled to Tashkent, Fergana, Bukhara, Termez, and Nukus in January 2024, meeting government officials, religious leaders, human rights defenders, civil society actors, and young people. Its recommendations are practical and sequenced: strengthen platforms for government–religious dialogue, define religious extremism more precisely, improve registration procedures, expand religious literacy, and support institutional mechanisms that enable continuous learning. These findings are what Uzbekistan contributes to the Panel’s regional dialogue.

Equip. Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL) is delivered through certificate programs with profession-specific tracks for government specialists, law enforcement, and religious leaders. LYNC and the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies have signed a five-year memorandum of understanding, giving CCRL an institutional home and creating a foundation for long-term capacity building rather than periodic training.

Across these three areas, Uzbekistan demonstrates that a state which once approached religion primarily through security can foster ongoing conversation about religious freedom without abandoning legitimate security concerns. Its contribution to the Panel is not simply a set of reforms, but a model for translating shared principles into institutions through dialogue, education, and sustained cooperation. The unfinished work it brings to the table—defining extremism precisely enough to protect both security and freedom—is shared across the region.

Both assessments are published in full: Assessment of Religious Freedom in Uzbekistan and Dialogue of Declarations II.