Uzbekistan to impose tougher penalties for child abusers – Mirziyoyeva

Punishments for child abuse in Uzbekistan will be made harsher. This was announced by Shahnoza Mirziyoyeva, the youngest daughter of the President of Uzbekistan and First Deputy Director of the National Agency for Social Protection, on her social media page.

“I do not consider violence an ‘accident.’ It is always a conscious choice made by adults. Therefore, there must be another choice instead—the choice to stop it. No excuses,” Mirziyoyeva wrote.

According to her, on the initiative of the National Agency for Social Protection, work is underway to amend the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes in several key areas:

•  strengthening penalties for individuals who harm children;
•  imposing a lifelong ban on offenders from working with children;
•  introducing unified operational protocols to ensure swift and effective accountability.

Mirziyoyeva emphasized that the main goal of these measures is to ensure that perpetrators of violence are never left unpunished and that the strictest penalties are applied.

It was noted that a special working group has been formed to prepare these amendments. The group includes representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Preschool and School Education. This team has already begun developing practical mechanisms.

For context, earlier reports on social media revealed that a 15-year-old girl was raped by four young men in the city of Angren, Tashkent region. The Children’s Ombudsman stated that a criminal case was initiated on May 9 by the Angren Department of Internal Affairs, and preliminary investigations are ongoing. In addition, the National Agency for Social Protection, as the authorized state body responsible for protecting children from violence, has taken the case under special control.