Disputes - international:
prolonged drought and cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan created water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states; field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2004; border delimitation of 130 km of border with Kyrgyzstan is hampered by serious disputes around enclaves and other areas

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
stateless persons: 86,703 (2014)

Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Uzbekistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; adults and children are victims of government-compelled forced labor during Uzbekistan’s annual cotton harvest, as well as for the construction and cleaning of parks; the government in 2013 for the first time cooperated with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to monitor the cotton harvest for compliance with the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention; the ILO recorded 53 violations but concluded that forced child labor was not used on a systematic basis during the 2013 cotton harvest; Uzbekistani women and children are sex trafficked domestically and in countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe; Uzbekistani men and women are subjected to forced labor in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, the UAE, Malaysia, and, to a lesser extent, Ukraine in domestic service, agriculture, construction, and the oil industry
tier rating: Tier 3 – Uzbekistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government in 2013 did not openly acknowledge forced labor in the cotton sector, which remained prevalent, but it took an encouraging step in allowing the ILO to monitor the cotton harvest for forced child labor; authorities continued to address transnational sex and labor trafficking, implementing anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; the government operated a shelter to help sex and labor trafficking victims and strengthened its ties with NGOs to repatriate victims and provide services, although no systematic procedures for assisting trafficking victims were in place; NGOs unaffiliated with the government faced additional scrutiny in 2013, hampering their efforts to protect victims (2014)

Illicit drugs:
transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and, to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for domestic consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by government crop eradication program; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan