CAT/C/UZB/CO/4
(e)
ILO Convention No. 138 (1976) concerning Minimum Age for Admission to
Employment;
(f)
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime.
5.
The Committee also welcomes the entry into force, inter alia, of national legislation,
including:
(a)
The law on guarantees of the rights of the child of 7 January 2008;
(b)
The law on fighting human trafficking of 17 April 2008;
(c)
The law on prevention of child neglect and juvenile delinquency of
29 September 2010;
(d)
The law on amendments and additions to the code of the Republic of
Uzbekistan on administrative responsibility on the question of exemption from
administrative liability for minor offences of 26 April 2011;
(e)
The law on pretrial detention during criminal proceedings of 29 September
2011.
6.
The Committee also notes with interest the efforts of the State party to develop
policies, programmes and administrative measures in response to the recommendations of
the Committee against Torture, including adoption of a national plan of action following
consideration of its third periodic report by the Committee in 2007.
C.
Principal subjects of concern and recommendations
Widespread torture and ill-treatment
7.
The Committee is concerned about numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations
that torture and ill-treatment are routinely used by law enforcement, investigative and
prison officials, or at their instigation or with their consent, often to extract confessions or
information to be used in criminal proceedings. While recognizing that the State party is not
subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee notes
that in 2011 the Court determined that “the use of torture and ill-treatment against detainees
in Uzbekistan is ‘systematic’, ‘unpunished’ and ‘encouraged’ by law enforcement and
security officers.”1 The Committee is concerned that the State party deemed “unfounded”
numerous complaints of torture raised during the review, several of which had previously
been addressed by other United Nations human rights mechanisms. It notes that while the
State party indicated that 45 individuals were prosecuted for torture in the period 2010–
2013, the State party recorded 336 complaints of torture or ill-treatment against law
enforcement officers during the same period. While welcoming the information submitted
by the State party that the legislative, judicial and executive branches of Government are
combating torture, the Committee is concerned that it has not received information
suggesting that executive branch officials have recently and publicly condemned torture or
directed condemnation to police and prison officials (arts. 4, 12, 13, 15 and 16).
1
2
European Court of Human Rights, application no. 7265/10, Yakubov v. Russia, judgment of
8 November 2011, para. 82.