An international round table entitled "Democratic development: security, human rights, cooperation for the sake of future" has focused on the human rights policy and the role of political parties in Uzbekistan, the Uzbek website UzReport reported on 16 November. The round table was held in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on 15-16 November.

The forum, which was organized by the Uzbek Regional Politics Foundation together with the US National Democratic Institute of International Relations and the coordinator of the OSCE projects in Uzbekistan, was attended by experts and political scientists from the Netherlands, the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Poland and Russia. The event included several sessions focusing on various issues like setting up democratic institutions, ensuring human rights, and the role of political parties, the report said.

In particular, the report said that the forum’s second session "discussed issues of state policy in observing human rights and determining prospects for further pursuing" this policy in Uzbekistan.

The report went on to detail the third session, where Richard Glaub, resident director of the US National Democratic Institute of International Relations, made a speech. The session discussed "the role of political parties in raising the people’s activeness" in the processes of social and political reforms in Uzbekistan, the report said.

"Indeed, democracy is impossible without political parties, and the political parties are impossible without democracy. At present, the political parties are urged to become the most important tool of raising the people’s political and social activeness, expressing the will and opinion of the population, above all, during the election processes," the report noted.

It concluded that the forum’s fourth session would focus on international cooperation in "ensuring peace and stability".