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• The Alexander Dallin Lecture


• Stanford/Berkeley Joint Conference

"A Critique of the Community Self-Management Organization Mahalla and its Complicity in Government Repression in Uzbekistan"

Nozima Kamalova
Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS) fellow;
Director of the Public Defense Office of the Tashkent Board of Lawyers;
Founding Chair of the Legal Aid Society of Uzbekistan

This research paper presents a study of Mahalla, a traditional neighborhood community management body in Uzbekistan, and its relationship with the local and central governments of that country. The hypothesis of this talk is that although Mahalla is codified as an independent entity, it comes under control of the government due to the undemocratic nature of the regime in order to perpetuate its ideological agenda. The conclusion demonstrates that Mahalla is, in fact, legally and extra-legally controlled by the government - Mahalla is demonstrated to be used by the government as a tool of repression against the Uzbek people, rather than in its intended capacity as a means to organize residents into communities with social networking and mutual assistance opportunities.

Nozima Kamalova, is a Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS) fellow for 2009-10. She is a human rights defender and lawyer, the director of the Public Defense Office of the Tashkent Board of Lawyers and the founding chair of the Legal Aid Society of Uzbekistan, a nongovernmental organization that works with international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to safeguard and promote the rule of law. Kamalova has been instrumental in the revision of several Uzbek laws related to torture and human rights, and her lobbying activities have influenced much policy and legislation adopted both internationally and in Uzbekistan. She has served as a chief consultant to agencies of the United Nations, and in since 2002, she submitted a number of alternative reports to the United Nation's Committees on human rights violations and concerning the use of torture in her country.

In 2005, Kamalova was awarded the Chevening Fellowship by the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2003, she completed an advanced course on human rights in Poland at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and in 1999, she was an International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Fellow. She holds a diploma with highest honors in law from Tashkent State University.