
VOA Uzbek: Activists say no Central Asian countries are ‘free’
Voice of America
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, left, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon pose after signing documents in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on April 18, 2024. Tajikistan has been under one man's rule for over 30 years. The last time the leader changed in Uzbekistan was in 2016.
Freedom House, like other human rights organizations, considers Central Asia to be a region far from democracy. According to the report, none of the Central Asian republics allow political competition; there is no opposition, and therefore, elections are unfair and undemocratic; parliaments and courts are not independent; presidents are autocratic.

Ghana's first-ever female world boxing champion, Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey, poses for a photo after a morning training session on the beach in the Jamestown district of Accra, Ghana, Jan 22, 2025. Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey, 28, shows a photo of her match against Sangeeta Birdie from Britain, which earned her the world title and made her Ghana's first-ever female world boxing champion in Jamestown, Accra, Ghana, Jan 23, 2025.

A demonstrator holds a picture of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a rally in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Feb. 27, 2025. Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party declared a ceasefire on March 1 after he asked the group to disband. Pakize Akbaba mourns over the gravestone of her son Namik Ayhan Akbaba, a Turkish soldier who was killed during fighting with PKK militants, on the day jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group to disarm and disband, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Feb. 27, 2025. Syrian Kurds make the peace sign as they gather after Turkey's jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his Kurdistan Workers' Party to lay down its arms, a move that could have far-reaching consequences for the region, in Hasakah, Syria, on Feb. 27, 2025.

A woman wrapped in the national flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo prays at Gemelli hospital, where Pope Francis is hospitalized with pneumonia, in Rome on March 1, 2025. Nuns arrive to pray at St. Peter's Square, as Pope Francis continues his hospitalization, at the Vatican on March 1, 2025. Faithful attend a Mass for the health of Pope Francis at an underground chapel under St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on March 1, 2025.