Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- These days, the parliamentary delegation of Uzbekistan, headed by Chairman of the Senate Tanzila Narbaeva, is taking part in the 13th Summit of Women Speakers and the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments, organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in cooperation with the UN and the Austrian parliament in Vienna.

During the visit, the head of the Senate met with the UN Under-Secretary-General, Executive Secretary of the Office on Drugs and Crime Ghada Fathi Waly. 

The main topics of the talks were the organization of the visit of the head of the UNODC to Uzbekistan, the adoption of a special Program of this organization for the countries of Central Asia, as well as the expansion of cooperation in the field of combating drug trafficking and organized crime.

The Executive Director of UNODC highly appreciated the reforms carried out on the initiative of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, which fully coincide with the Sustainable Development Goals and common European principles. As Ghada Fathi Waly noted, one of the evidence of the world recognition of these reforms is the election of the Republic of Uzbekistan as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

“We fully support the decisive steps taken by the Head of State in the fight against corruption, to completely eradicate child and systemic forced labor, as well as to combat human trafficking. The UNODC Regional Office in Tashkent is the largest overseas office of the organization. This testifies to the importance of our interaction with Uzbekistan,” Ghada Fathi Waly emphasized.

During the meeting, the parties reached an agreement on the visit of the UN Deputy Secretary General to Uzbekistan in November this year to sign a new UN regional Program for 2022-2025. The launch of this program will dynamically build up the capacity of law enforcement agencies to investigate violations in the field of human trafficking, counter corruption, and prevent drug addiction as part of activities to strengthen family values.

The head of the UNODC also expressed support for the initiatives of Uzbekistan on interdepartmental and cross-border cooperation, which play a very important component in ensuring regional security against the background of the events unfolding around Afghanistan.