Fighting Domestic Violence

Uzbekistan

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2. Introduction: framework guiding domestic violence law
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2. Introduction: framework guiding domestic violence law Start Comparison
2.1 Are there civil and criminal legal remedies for domestic violence victims?

In Uzbekistan, a victim of violence has the right to:

  • apply to the relevant authorized bodies and courts with claims concerning the facts of oppression (harassment) or violence against her or threat of their making
  • file a claim for compensation for the material damage caused to her and compensation for moral harm owing to oppression and violence
  • petition the law enforcement bodies to receive the protective order

 To protect victims of violence and abuse, the Women Protection Law provides for any of the following individual measures:

  1. An authority that revealed the fact of violence and abuse may carry out a preventive conversation with the abuser.
  2. An internal affairs body may issue a protective order.
  3. A victim of violence and abuse may be placed in a special center (i.e., a shelter).
  4. An abuser may be forced to go through a correctional program to change his violent behavior.

Such measures may be used by the internal affairs body (i.e., police). The person authorized to issue a protective order is called a preventive inspector. The list of individual measures is exhaustive. No other measures may be applied at the discretion of a preventive inspector.

2.2 Is domestic violence identified in national law as a human right (noting that at a European level protection from domestic violence has not been explicitly identified as a human right but is indirectly captured by the other provisions)?

According to Article 26 of the Constitution, no one may be subject to torture, violence, and cruel or inhumane treatment. Under Article 46 of the Constitution, women and men will have equal rights in Uzbekistan. More specifically, the right to be protected against domestic violence is not defined in national law as a human right.

The state will safeguard the rights and freedoms of citizens proclaimed by the Constitution and laws (Article 43 of the Constitution: Everyone will be entitled to legally defend their rights and freedoms, and will have the right to appeal any unlawful action of state bodies, officials and public associations (Article 44)). 

2.3 Has your country signed and ratified the conventions?

Uzbekistan has joined the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ("1979 Convention") and ratified it on 19 July 1995. Uzbekistan has not signed the Maputo Protocol.

2.4 If it has ratified the Maputo Protocol, how has it been implemented into national law (African Union member states only)?

N/A

2.5 If it has ratified the 1979 Convention (CEDAW), how has the recommendations part of General Comment No. 35 been implemented into national law?

In recent years Uzbekistan has supplemented its legislation with a number of provisions in the sphere of human rights. The most remarkable initiative in the sphere of domestic violence and abuse prevention was the Women Protection Law, which came into effect on 3 September 2019.

At the same time, there exists a number of issues that require the attention of the state, including, for example, the necessity to explicitly criminalize rape in marriage and intimate partner relationships as a separate article in the Criminal Code, or as an aggravating circumstance within the existing sexual violence articles, and to update the Criminal Procedure Code in order to make sure that all sexual violence crimes are investigated/prosecuted ex officio by the State and that the investigation/prosecution does not depend on the complaint of the victim or their legal representative.

2.6 If the conventions have not been ratified or signed, is it envisaged that your country will do so?

Uzbekistan has signed and ratified the 1979 Convention. 

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