It has been 15 years since devastating ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbek people swept through southern Kyrgyzstan, leaving over 400 dead, thousands injured, and entire neighborhoods destroyed. Over 400,000 people were displaced in the violence that predominantly targeted ethnic Uzbeks.
While the immediate crisis has long passed, for many ethnic Uzbeks justice remains elusive and discrimination persists. Ethnic Uzbeks face ongoing displacement as well as broad language restrictions in educational settings that effectively curtail both their educational and professional opportunities.
“There are still wounds that have not healed,” Jasur (pseudonym), a 23-year-old ethnic Uzbek, resident in Osh told us. “Many, especially the older generation that does not speak anything but Uzbek, are socially and politically isolated.”
The anniversary coincides with the publication of a United Nations report on racial discrimination in Kyrgyzstan. The concluding observations from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed grave concern about the investigations into the June 2010 ethnic violence, noting that even though most victims were ethnic Uzbeks, the majority of those prosecuted for violence were also Uzbek.
The committee’s report concluded that “no compensation was provided to Uzbek victims of miscarriages of justice,” and noted that reports of torture and forced confessions by Uzbeks went unpunished. The committee urged Kyrgyzstan “to conduct prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of abuses and violations of human rights that occurred during and in the aftermath of the June 2010 ethnic violence” and to ensure “that the victims or their families are provided with adequate forms of reparation.”
Human Rights Watch has also documented the Kyrgyzstan government’s failure to ensure justice and accountability for the 2010 events, with criminal investigations and trials skewed against ethnic Uzbeks and marred by violence and allegations of ill-treatment and torture. The ethnic Uzbek human rights defender Azimjon Askarov was wrongfully imprisoned by the Kyrgyz authorities in the aftermath of the violence. Despite sustained calls for his release – including by the United Nations Human Rights Committee – he died in custody in July 2020. Kyrgyz authorities have failed to carry out an effective investigation into his death.
The Kyrgyz government claims it is trying to prevent further inter-ethnic conflict and promote harmony. Its “Kyrgyzstan citizen” concept aims at “building civic identity in Kyrgyzstan based on the unifying role of the State language – Kyrgyz – as the most important element in consolidating society, while preserving ethnic diversity and ethnocultural specificities and developing multilingualism.”
However, several ethnic Uzbeks from Osh told Human Rights Watch that the 2010 trauma continues to inform their daily lives and that the government’s efforts have largely been ineffective.
Recent urban redevelopment activities in Osh have been carried out in a way that appears to have exacerbated these tensions and trauma. In April, Osh city authorities began partially demolishing approximately 200 properties on Navoi street – a predominantly ethnic Uzbek street – without adequate consultation with or compensation for the residents. The street suffered the worst destruction during the 2010 violence and was subsequently rebuilt with international support. Other non-Uzbek majority areas in the city have also been affected by urban redevelopment plans.
“The demolitions triggered [memories for] my family because our house was damaged during the 2010 events by vandals and we had to sell it for a fraction of its price under pressure from the authorities,” Jasur said. “We’re feeling like the Uzbek populations, who have historically lived in that area, are being pushed out of the areas around Sulaiman Mountain.”
The U.N. committee also identified limitations on the use of Uzbek language in education in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan’s constitution guarantees ethnic groups the right to preserve and promote their native languages, and government data shows 161 schools offering instruction in Uzbek. But the U.N. committee expressed concern about the absence of mother tongue education guarantees in the State Standard of General Education regulation adopted in March 2025. In the committee’s view, this may result in the exclusion of students who receive their main education in minority languages, including ethnic Uzbeks, from being able to pursue further studies at universities where entrance examinations would be conducted only in Kyrgyz and Russian.
“Even though we’re one of the bigger ethnic minorities in Kyrgyzstan at 15 percent of the whole population, it feels like we don’t matter, like we don’t belong to Kyrgyzstan even if it’s our home and this is where we were born and where we will die,” said Dilshod (pseudonym), another ethnic Uzbek resident in Osh. The residents spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The path to healing requires acknowledging the abuses by Kyrgyz authorities, respect for human rights and the rule of law, which includes accountability for injustice, and genuine efforts to address the Uzbek minority’s current fears, concerns, and the discrimination they still face today. Until the wounds of 2010 are addressed, the trauma will continue to cast a shadow over ethnic relations in southern Kyrgyzstan, preventing the sustainable reconciliation that both communities deserve.
“What I wish the authorities did was to recognize that what happened in 2010 was a horrible thing,” one person interviewed said. “If they recognized our community’s hurt, that would have meant so much.”