On April 11, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed long-awaited amendments to the nation’s laws on the safety of girls and youngsters from violence. Uzbekistan grew to become the fifth nation in Japanese Europe and Central Asia to criminalize home violence, famous Amnesty Worldwide.
1000’s of circumstances of violence towards ladies and sexual abuse of minors go unreported due to uyat, disgrace tradition. Though there aren’t any official statistics accessible, round 40,000 ladies report circumstances of abuse to law-enforcement our bodies yearly, with 80 % of them involving home violence.
“I feel that home violence, and even sexual violence in direction of minors, is actually widespread in Uzbekistan, however as in lots of international locations, these are taboo matters and latent crimes,” Irina Matvienko, a feminist activist and a founding father of nemolchi.uz, a undertaking devoted to struggle towards gender-based violence in Uzbekistan, instructed The Diplomat. “It’s actually shameful for ladies to report back to the police. For instance, now there may be an investigation of an alleged rape of a 13-year-old lady by a person who works within the Nationwide Guard. She reported about it when she was 16 … he raped her, and threatened her, so she was afraid to inform about it. … I’m in touch along with her mom, [and she says] that the whole lot is okay with the alleged rapist and his household. They stroll in mahalla [the neighborhood] proudly. However the household of this lady is blamed by their mahalla.
“In Uzbekistan, in circumstances of gender-based violence, everybody blames ladies.”
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Nozima Davletova, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of Uzbekistan’s Public Basis for Assist and Growth of Nationwide Mass Media, famous in an interview with The Diplomat that for a very long time home violence was simply an invisible downside. “Making it extra vocal and making it seen can be one of many options. There’s 1683206269 public discourse and discussions on social media,” mentioned Davletova.
Specifically, sexual abuse of minors has been on the middle of public dialogue lately as media started reporting about such incidents extra typically. In 2020, 153 folks have been discovered responsible of getting intercourse with minors below 16; in 2022 the quantity jumped to 238. The age of consent in Uzbekistan is 16. Nevertheless, loopholes in laws have allowed many perpetrators to keep away from actual punishment. For instance, not too long ago, three women at an orphanage in Khorezm, aged 15 to 17, have been made to have intercourse with native public officers over a interval of 10 months. The top of the orphanage who “pressured them to have intercourse with totally different males for monetary achieve” was ultimately sentenced to 5 years in jail, whereas the 2 public officers who had intercourse with the underage women received away with a 12 months and a half of restriction of freedom. Primarily, their solely punishment is that they have to not go away their houses between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Taking authorized motion towards perpetrators of home abuse can be difficult – reportedly, solely 7 % of circumstances attain the courtroom. Even when a case will get to courtroom, perpetrators don’t face heavy legal expenses. For instance, the opportunity of issuing safety orders towards abuse and harassment was launched in 2020, and hundreds of girls have filed for them, largely towards their husbands. However, in 2021, nemolchi.uz reported that lower than a fifth of the aggressors needed to undergo correctional applications, whereas solely 0.2 % of aggressors towards whom a safety order was issued have been prosecuted.
“Earlier than the criminalization of home violence, such crimes have been addressed below a number of articles of the Legal Code, through which accountable individuals, that’s, individuals who commit these crimes, could possibly be not solely family members, spouses or ex-spouses, or companions, however any strangers too,” defined Kamola Alieva, a lawyer, gender specialist, and an affiliate professor at Tashkent State College of Legislation. “In circumstances of home violence, their crimes have been primarily handled below articles on bodily accidents of various severity, slander, and insults as a type of psychological abuse. And it so occurred that below these articles, often, the punishment was not so harsh.”
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For instance, when a lady is subjected to deliberate severe bodily harm – a beating by her husband – a forensic examination may conclude that it was mild or average bodily harm, however not heavy, and so the husband wouldn’t face legal liabilities. For an harm to be categorised as heavy, a lady must lose her capability to work for 3 weeks or extra. Legislation enforcement officers used the identical articles of the Legal and Administrative Codes for each circumstances of home abuse and abuse by strangers. The brand new amendments change this.
In circumstances of sexual abuse of minors, attorneys would typically use loopholes within the laws, specifically arguing that the perpetrator didn’t know the lady’s age and the whole lot was consensual. “The identical was within the case of [the orphanage girls in] Khorezm. They categorised the case [as consensual], however in actuality, it was a rape [of underaged girls],” Alieva instructed The Diplomat.
Below the brand new laws, it’s the duty of an grownup to know the age of the person whom she or he desires to have interaction in a intercourse act with. Additionally, perpetrators, in contrast to earlier than, can’t get out of jail on parole both – they must serve a full sentence.
The invoice additionally elevated the penalties for indecent conduct towards minors, the best punishment for which was beforehand two years of imprisonment. “For instance, one 12 months in the past, when a faculty psychologist [indecently] touched 5 scholar women of age 9 and 11, the case grew to become very resonant. However the choose may give him solely two years [sentence], solely as a result of that was the best punishment,” Matvienko mentioned. The amendments now present sentences for indecency towards minors from two to seven years of restricted freedom or imprisonment.
The amendments suggest administrative and legal liabilities for home violence relying on its sort. “For 3 years in a row, should you have a look at statistics on issued safety orders [to women], psychological abuse is the commonest, however there was no duty [liability] for this,” defined Alieva. “There was duty just for an insult or slander, however psychological abuse is just not solely these. And now [the amendments] embrace legal responsibility for psychological and financial abuse. First there may be administrative legal responsibility, then comes legal legal responsibility, if abuse is repeated.”
Administrative liabilities embrace both a superb or obligatory neighborhood service or correctional work. “Why is neighborhood service crucial? I feel it’s a great determination,” Alieva instructed The Diplomat. “As a result of in Uzbekistan, [and] in Central Asia, individuals are afraid of uyat (disgrace), of ‘what is going to folks say?!’ And it must be put to good use. There’s such follow in neighboring international locations that individuals who commit home violence do sweeping and different works publicly.”
Spousal rape is even much less mentioned than the abuse of minors, for it most frequently occurs behind closed doorways and is among the many most taboo matters. Males find out about intercourse from pornography or they journey to Russia and different international locations for labor migration and are uncovered to extra liberal sexual norms. After they marry younger, virgin women from conventional households, the non-traditional sexual practices these males asking for or forcing upon their wives are perceived as demeaning.
“Marital rape has all the time envisioned legal responsibility,” clarified Alieva. “Earlier than, below article 119, if an unnatural satisfaction of sexual want by utilizing violence, intimidation, or benefiting from the sufferer’s vulnerability was carried out with shut family members, it was thought-about aggravating circumstances. Now the article contains not solely shut family members, but additionally ex-wife (ex-husband), a cohabitant (associate), which largely contains second wives, or an individual with whom they’ve a typical youngster. De jure, there may be legal legal responsibility, however de facto, [almost] nobody information a grievance on spousal rape.”
Home violence perpetrators won’t be mandatorily punished, nevertheless. The reconciliation clause below article 66.1 permits ladies to cease prosecution at any time, though regulation enforcement our bodies are obligated to be sure that she is just not doing so below strain. “However in aggravating circumstances of deliberate home violence the place a sufferer is closely injured, loses eyesight or listening to, or being pregnant, or when a perpetrator acts based mostly on spiritual convictions or in a bunch, and so on., the reconciliation clause doesn’t apply,” defined Alieva to The Diplomat.
Though civil rights and girls’s rights activists have been pushing for the criminalization of home violence for years, progress on the invoice that began final 12 months was met with some resistance.
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“In April, one 12 months in the past, the Senate created a working group to develop the undertaking of the regulation,” mentioned Matvienko. “I used to be not invited. Solely in June, they invited me to [join] this group, as a result of, as I do know, UNICEF lobbied for my participation. [Regarding the resistance,] I feel it’s a query of gender stereotypes. One senator instructed us, ‘However there are light-minded 15 12 months outdated women who need intercourse with adults.’ Perhaps it’s their private expertise they usually suppose that minors need to have intercourse with them. We have no idea.”
Resistance to the invoice was additionally justified by calls to respect “conventional” household values. Criminalization of home violence may result in extra divorce, opponents argued.
Matvienko specifically famous that resistance to the amendments might need been resulting from monetary causes, too. In a case of divorce, a ladies may grow to be a burden for the federal government. In Uzbek households, women from an early age are raised to be a great spouse and mom. They aren’t taught about monetary independence or inspired to construct a profession.
“Working with victims of home violence, now we see loads of them aren’t able to take duty for their very own life. So that they often wait [until] somebody will come and save them from their husbands. [They say], ‘Oh, I can’t report him [to the police]. However do one thing, save me.’ They write to us, ‘I need to go away my husband, however I don’t have a home. I don’t have work. How can I get a home from the federal government? Or cash?’ They don’t need to work, or to take vocational programs for ladies. We’ve got a particular program from the federal government and it really works. And I feel the federal government understands. In case of [many more] divorces, all of those ladies will come to the federal government and ask for a flat or cash and I feel our authorities doesn’t have such assets.”
There’s dissatisfaction with the amendments amongst some residents as effectively. For a lot of in Uzbekistan, a lady’s place is at house, on the service of a husband and her in-laws. Giving ladies company and voice is frowned upon. They typically specific their stand on social media platforms, criticizing the whole lot about ladies – from their clothes to life-style and extra.
“There are additionally the traditionalists. I can’t say that they’re radicals, however they’re fairly radical about ladies and girls’s rights,” mentioned Davletova. “There are some bloggers that really disseminate concepts which can be discriminative and violent in direction of ladies. I feel that is fairly harmful, and now we have to take authorized measures towards them. This is part of a hate speech towards ladies and needs to be taken critically.”
Notably, Saida Mirziyoyeva, the president’s daughter and head of the Communications and Info Coverage Department of the Government Workplace of the Presidential Administration, was vocal in help of the amendments, amongst another feminine politicians and activists as effectively. “I feel one other achievement was that the ladies in energy have been with us and I would love, in fact, specifically, to focus on Ms. [Saida] Mirziyoyeva’s position in it,” Davletova famous. “She additionally had powerful negotiations. Her voice was essential, very highly effective, particularly in social media. With out her help, I don’t suppose that we may have achieved such outcomes. However basically, it was an excellent cooperation between the civil society activists and the federal government. It’s this cooperation and this solidarity that introduced these outcomes.”
Enacting the amendments right into a regulation is a half-step solely. Implementation of the regulation requires tougher efforts, and to date, Tashkent has not been efficient in totally implementing earlier authorized measures. Civil society activists typically point out how, for instance, safety orders haven’t been efficient, shelters aren’t working correctly, or representatives of regulation enforcement and the judicial system typically victim-blame ladies searching for assist.
“I feel that there shall be a backlash,” continued Davletova. “And there’s a threat that these legal guidelines aren’t going to be efficient in each nook of Uzbekistan, but it surely additionally relies on how we talk the significance of those legal guidelines to folks – a collection of initiatives of advocacy, of social media work, coaching of regulation enforcement our bodies. What we at the moment are going to do is to coach every related ministry employees on gender sensitivity, as a result of [so far] they’re very tolerant to violence.”
Davletova additionally talked about that an necessary job now’s the work of the media to alter social norms and show extra gender delicate media merchandise starting from films to articles that depict ladies in a different way from stereotypes. However what’s most necessary now, she says, is to create a system of response that’s “fairly commonplace,” one through which each women and men know their rights and know what to anticipate from regulation enforcement and the authorized system.
Lower than a month after Mirziyoyev signed into regulation the brand new provisions criminalizing home violence, Matvienko fled Uzbekistan after receiving dying threats. Whereas she mentioned in a social media put up that she would return to the nation, her flight underscores the hazards confronted by ladies in Uzbekistan urgent for change.
