PART I PROPERTY RIGHT VIOLATIONS AND FORCED EVICTIONS IN UZBEKISTAN: AN INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction This report presents key findings from over seven years of human rights monitoring covering the compulsory acquisition of homes and farms by the government of Uzbekistan for the purposes of facilitating large-scale private developments. It focuses on the period 2017–2024. The findings are set against a policy context in which the regime of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev (2016–present) has promoted rapid urban redevelopment and rural industrialisation as part of its ‘New Uzbekistan’ policy, which is focused on private sector-driven economic growth. This has created the setting for the approval and implementation of major real estate developments in urban centres and touristic zones, along with the centralisation of rural landholdings for agricultural production through agro-industrial clusters, which have been placed under the control of private corporations. These development-based projects are also prompting a wave of public resistance across the country.1 A common thread underpinning these different avenues for development is the state-organised compulsory acquisition of land from homeowners and farmers, and its concentrated redistribution to corporate developers. A False Sense of Legality 5