The relevant legislation on domestic violence in Uzbekistan is as follows:
Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan (adopted by the Supreme Council of the Republicof Uzbekistan on 8December 1992)
Article 24 (right to life), Article 25 (right to freedom and inviolability of the person), Article 26 (prohibition of torture, violence, other cruel or humiliating human dignity treatment), Article 27 (right to protection against encroachments on honor and dignity of a human being), Article 43 (The state will safeguard the rights and freedoms of citizens proclaimed by the Constitution and laws), Article46 (Women and men will have equal rights).
Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. ZRU-561 09/02/2019 "On the Protection of Women from Oppression (Harassment) and Violence" (adopted by the Legislative Chamber on 17 August 2019, approved by the Senate on 23 August 2019, approved by the president and published on 2September 2019)
Law on the protection of women against all forms of oppression and violence ("Women Protection Law"), defining various forms of violence against women and introducing forms of protective measures available to women in Uzbekistan.
Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (adopted by Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 2012-XII on 22 September 1994, put into effect from 1 April 1995)
Article 97 (intentional killing), Article 102 (reckless (negligent) killing), Article 103 (bringing (incitement) to suicide), Article 104 (intentional infliction of serious bodily injury), Article 105 (intentional infliction of medium bodily injury), Article 109 (intentional infliction of slight bodily injury), Article 110 (torture), Article 111 (reckless (negligent) infliction of serious or medium bodily injury), Article 112, (threats to kill or use violence), Article 118 – 121, 128, 129 (sex crimes, including rape), Article 136 (forced marriage).
Regulation on the issuance of a protective order, ensuring its execution and monitoring; identification and correction of latent forms of violence.
International treaties
If the international treaty of the Republic of Uzbekistan establishes rules other than those that are stipulated by the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan about protection of women against oppression and violence, then the rules of the international treaty (Article 2 of the Women Protection Law) apply.
Uzbekistan, not being a common law country, does not recognize case law as a separate source of legislation. However, under Article 17 of the Law of Uzbekistan No. 162-II 14.12.2000 "On courts" dated 14 December 2000, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan summarizes court practice and provides comments on the application of legislation.
On a regular basis, the plenum of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan issues resolutions with summaries on certain types of cases. These summaries consist of the Supreme Court's explanations on how to apply the provisions of criminal and procedural law — for instance, how to correctly qualify particular actions as one or another type of crime, what exactly will be written in court judgments in different circumstances etc. Some such summaries potentially apply to cases involving violence against women (e.g., Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 13 "On court practice on rape and sex crimes" dated 29 October 2010; № 6 "On court practice on cases involving intentional infliction of bodily injuries" dated 27 June 2007). However, these Resolutions provide no direct specific guidance on domestic violence cases or cases of violence against women.Cases of domestic violence can be addressed in Uzbekistan by regional, city and district courts for administrative and criminal cases. Civil cases between citizens are heard in regional, city and district courts for civil cases. The upper level of the Uzbek judicial system consists of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. The latter acts as both a court of first instance and an appellate court for civil and criminal cases that analyzes court practice and oversees the work of the lower level courts.
Uzbekistan has no specific criminal statute against domestic violence. Individuals who use physical violence against their spouses or others can, in principle, be prosecuted under the general articles of the Criminal Code covering crimes against the life or health of persons. In particular, the Criminal Code criminalizes killing (Articles 97, 98, 102), bringing (incitement) to commit suicide (Article 103), harm to health depending on the gravity of damage and intention of the offender (Articles 104, 105, 109, and 111), torture (Article 110) (defined as "systematic beatings or other actions constituting torture"), various sex offenses (Articles 118 – 121, 128, and 129), forced marriage (Article 136), forced abortion (Article 115), and threats to kill or use violence (Article 112).
There are no separate causes of action in cases of domestic violence against children. However, in certain cases the age of the victim may be an aggravating factor (e.g., in case of torture (Article 110) or rape (Article 118)).
Assault resulting in light injury to the victim but without any short-term health consequences is punished as a misdemeanor offense under the administrative law (Article 52 of the Administrative Offense Code). Verbal humiliations are treated as administrative offenses as well (Article 41 of the Administrative Offense Codes). Repeated assault or verbal humiliation is treated as a criminal offense (Article 109 and Article 140 of the Criminal Code, respectively).