Photo: Press service of the President of Uzbekistan
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a law toughening criminal liability for sexual violence against children under 14, the head of the presidential administration, Saida Mirziyoyeva, announced.
The law amends and supplements the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Penal Enforcement Code, the Labor Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses.
«Everyone who causes harm and pain to a child will be held accountable, from staff at educational institutions to relatives who commit abuse. There will be no leniency for any crime that results in a child's death. From now on, anyone who commits sexual violence against a child under 14 faces up to 25 years or life in prison. There will be no statute of limitations for such crimes,» Mirziyoyeva wrote.
In addition to harsher penalties for criminal offenses, the law increases administrative penalties for parental neglect, sexual harassment, violations of the minimum marriage age and failure to protect children from information harmful to their health.
The law also introduces additional procedural safeguards for children. In particular:
- Minors who are victims of or witnesses to violence will receive free legal aid from the moment they are first involved in legal proceedings;
- Questioning of a minor victim must be video-recorded to prevent repeated trauma from multiple interviews;
- A face-to-face confrontation between a child who is a victim of a sex crime and the suspect will be held only under a special decision by an investigator or prosecutor, or by court order;
- Employers will be allowed to dismiss staff at educational and child-care institutions if they commit violence against a child.
During the Senate's discussion of the law, it was reported that authorities identified 122 cases of violence against children in the country's educational institutions in 2025 alone. Of these, 38 occurred in kindergartens and 84 in schools.
