Amnesty International has launched a petition drive calling on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to take “all the necessary steps to ensure an end to abhorrent use of torture and abuse in Uzbekistan.”

The text of the petition also calls for “a formal discussion among EU foreign ministers by October this year to demand change in Uzbekistan.”

Amnesty says security forces and prison guards in Uzbekistan “use torture to extract confessions and other incriminating information and to intimidate and punish detainees and their families.”

The London-based group says those at particular risk include “people perceived by the authorities as a threat to national security, including human rights defenders.”

Amnesty says the EU has fallen “completely silent” over such abuses, “preferring to do its business with Uzbekistan behind closed doors.”