Quantum groups and ribbon G-categories

For a group G, the notion of a ribbon G-category was introduced in Turaev (Homotopy field theory in dimension 3 and crossed group-categories, preprint, math. GT/0005291) with a view towards constructing 3-dimensional homotopy quantum field theories (HQFTs) with target K(G,1). We discuss here how to derive ribbon G-categories from a simple complex Lie algebra image where G is the center of image. Our construction is based on a study of representations of the quantum group image at a root of unity var epsilon. Under certain assumptions on var epsilon, the resulting G-categories give rise to numerical invariants of pairs (a closed oriented 3-manifold M, an element of H1(M;G)) and to 3-dimensional HQFTs.