By Erica Marat (3/5/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On March 21, Bishkek Mayor Daniyar Usenov announced his initiative named “Beloved City”, created to mobilize school children to clean up the capital city from garbage before a series of major national holidays. Usenov’s project raised fierce reactions among local NGOs that claim his idea to use schoolchildren to clean up Bishkek’s streets is a direct abuse of children’s rights.

Over a dozen NGOs and human rights activists published a consolidated message against child labor that calls parents to collectively ignore Usenov’s project.

By Erkin Akhmadov (3/5/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In the framework of promoting a specific agenda for every year, the year 2008 was declared the “Year of Youth” in Uzbekistan. At a cabinet meeting on February 8, President Islam Karimov urged ministers to put into action a state strategy for youth, drafted especially for 2008. The strategy’s main stated goals are to train young middle-ranking specialists, create a more secure job market, and protect the rights of young people.

By Azer Kerimov (2/21/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)

As Kosovo announced its independence and a number of countries rushed to recognize its, official Baku has watched with a great deal of concern and suspicion the developments around this Balkan “state.” Many in Azerbaijan are concerned that the independence of Kosovo is creating a very negative precedent for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and could potentially result in Azerbaijan witnessing the same fate as Serbia did.

Nine years ago, when the Kosovo conflict erupted, few in the international arena could imagine that Kosovo would eventually become an independent state.