Population of women: 13,960,500/27,769,000 Life expectancy of women (at birth): 70 yrs School life expectancy for women: 11 years
Adult illiteracy for women: 4%
Last updated October 2008
Discrimination
Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan states that all people shall have equal rights and freedoms and be equal before the law without discrimination by sex, race, nationality, language, religion, social origin, convictions and individual and social liberties. Article 46 of the Constitution specifically states that women and men shall have equal rights. While the law provides for equality between men and women, women in fact experience widespread discrimination. Refusing to employ a female based on her gender is a crime, but the United Nations Development Programme found that discrimination in the workplace based on age or family status, such as, for example, giving preference to younger women without children, is a common practice. In addition, although Uzbek labor laws provide for equal pay for equal work, as of 2000, Uzbek women's wages were only 67.6% of men’s wages.
While the Constitution does not explicitly address sexual harassment in the workplace, Article 141 of the Criminal Code (as amended in 2001) addresses discrimination, which it calls a “violation of equality,” including discrimination based on sex. The discriminatory behavior may be direct or indirect, and includes violating or limiting a person’s constitutional rights based on sex, as well as granting privileges based on sex. This is punishable by a fine or correctional labor, but if committed with violence, the punishment increases to a higher fine, longer correctional labor sentence, or isolation or imprisonment. The 2007 updated Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Uzbekistan by the U.S. Department of State (“DOS Country Report”) was released in March 2008. It noted that although discrimination is against the law, women’s roles are still very limited in Uzbek society and especially in the workforce.
Article 148 of the Criminal Code prohibits employers from knowingly refusing to hire and from knowingly firing a woman due to her pregnancy or childcare issues. Violation of this article is punishable by a fine of up to twenty-five minimum monthly wages, deprivation of rights up for to three years or correctional labor for up to three years.
Although there were high hopes for the National Women’s Committee (“NWC;” a government-created non-governmental organization, or NGO), to increase women’s participation in society, the DOS Country Report says it has not lived up to this mandate, and may have actually hindered the progress that was being made by the nongovernmental sector. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which works with national governments to implement the Convention by the same name (CEDAW), noted that its Uzbek delegation did not include a single NWC member. The Committee’s 2006 Concluding Comments requests that the government increase its support of the National Women’s Committee.
In the same document, the Committee commended Uzbekistan’s implementation of the Convention, especially the government’s National Action Plan and new rules for increased women’s participation in political organizations. However, the Committee also had several concerns. The major ones are included in this summary. To create more legislative reforms regarding equal rights and opportunities, including passing the proposed but stalled Law on Equal Rights on Opportunities, the Committee recommends adopting CEDAW’s definition of discrimination and including CEDAW in the formal legal training of lawyers and judges. To reduce patriarchal attitudes, the Committee recommends educating men and boys, especially community leaders, about CEDAW, and not just women and girls. To address domestic violence and marital rape, the Committee urges the government to criminalize these behaviors, ensure victim protection, and increase victim services. The Committee would also like to see more information about sex segregation and wage disparities in the workforce, as well as sex disparities in land ownership.
Trafficking
The Constitution also does not specifically address trafficking. However, Criminal Code Article 135 (as amended in 2001) makes it a crime to “[engage] people for sexual or any other exploitation by deceit” and punishes it by up to five years’ imprisonment. If this crime is purposely committed to traffick the persons outside of Uzbekistan, the prison sentence increases to five to eight years. The DOS Country Report (also see above) notes that trafficking remains a “significant problem” in Uzbekistan, and that prosecution in particular is often ineffective. Even if they are successfully convicted, traffickers with lower sentences often later have their sentences reduced, or receive amnesty and go free.
For trafficking prevention, the Uzbek government has created an intense multi-media antitrafficking campaign in government-owned periodicals, newspapers, and television and radio channels. The campaign also included posting informative signs in public areas, and publicizing trafficking hotlines run by the NGO International Organization for Migration (IOM). However, the vast majority of hotline inquiries have been from people looking for jobs abroad and not to report trafficking cases. The government has also improved victim protection and rehabilitation by creating several new NGOs around the country to serve repatriated trafficking victims, often including statement collection and free temporary housing. Some of these NGOs have also conducted antitrafficking educational campaign in schools and youth camps.
The U.S. Department of State also publishes an annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), which ranks countries into three possible tiers based on the country’s compliance with minimum standards to combat human trafficking. TIP focuses on offender prosecution, victim protection, and trafficking prevention. The 2008 TIP found that Uzbekistan is making significant efforts to comply with these standards, but failed to provide supporting evidence of its efforts. This caused Uzbekistan to fall within the Tier 2 Watch List, meaning it will be monitored until an interim TIP is submitted to the U.S. Congress by 1 February 2009.
In particular, the TIP Report cites that the government of Uzbekistan “did not amend its criminal code to increase penalties for convicted traffickers and did not provide financial or in-kind assistance to NGOs providing assistance to victims during the reporting period.” This is in spite of the fact that the parliament adopted an anti-human trafficking law in March 2008 (see the official press release), which TIP says enables coordination among government ministries, increases funding for victim protection and assistance, and prevents the prosecution of victims. The country remains a source of women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation into Central and Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Caribbean. Women and men are also trafficked within Uzbekistan itself for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work and manual labor.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (also see above) is also concerned with trafficking. In its 2006 Concluding Comments (also see above), the Committee recommends that the Uzbek government adopt CEDAW Article 6; ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; and increase measures to prosecute offenders and protect and rehabilitate victims.
Rape
Article 118 of the Criminal Code (also see above) punishes rape by imprisonment for three to seven years. Rape is defined as "sexual intercourse committed by force, threat or abuse of helpless.” If committed by more than one person, by a repeat offender or dangerous recidivist, or with threat of death, the penalty increases to a sentence of seven to ten years. The penalty increases up to fifteen years if committed during riots, against a juvenile under eighteen years of age, a relative or is committed by a dangerous recidivist or results in grave consequences. If the victim is under fourteen years of age, the sentence increases up to twenty years in prison. The DOS Country Report (also see above) notes that marital rape should be prosecutable as a crime under Article 118, as well, but by the time the report was published in March 2008, there was still no case law on marital rape in Uzbek courts.
Domestic Violence
According to the DOS Country Report (also see above), domestic violence is not specifically addressed in the constitution. This is because domestic violence is not culturally considered a “criminal act” but rather a “personal affair,” leading to widespread failure in all segments of the Uzbek legal system to prevent domestic violence, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators. For example, law enforcement officers often discourage victims from reporting domestic violence incidents, and local government officials prefer reconciling husband and wife instead of prosecuting the husband and protecting the wife. A related and well-known problem is attempted and committed suicide as a result of domestic violence is, yet there are no precise figures due to under-reporting.
However, assault is a crime, so Criminal Code (also see above) articles that address intentional infliction of physical injury are used to prosecute domestic violence cases. Article 109 in particular is the most common, punishing intentional infliction of light injury with a fine, correctional work for one year or “arrest” for up to three months. The penalty increases if the injury leads to missed work or a temporary health disorder. Article 104 criminalizes the intentional infliction of serious injury that endangers life, results in physical injury, disfigurement or termination of pregnancy or reduces the victim's capacity to work. The punishment is five to eight years' imprisonment, increasing incrementally up to twelve years' imprisonment if certain aggravating factors are present. Article 105 criminalizes the intentional infliction of medium injury, punishable by a prison sentence or correctional labor of up to three years. Article 110 criminalizes tormenting, defined as "the systematic infliction of beatings or other acts with the nature of torture." Tormenting is punishable by correctional work, arrest or imprisonment.
According to a report by The Advocates for Human Rights, one legal expert suggested that Article 277 of the Criminal Code, criminalizing hooliganism, might be used to prosecute domestic violence, if the violence occurred in front of relatives or children. Hooliganism is punishable by a fine, correctional work, arrest or imprisonment for up to eight years, depending on the circumstances.
On the related issue of forced marriage, Article 136 of the Criminal Code prohibits forcing a woman to get married or continue cohabitation, or abducting a woman with intent to marry her against her will or preventing her from marrying. Forcing or preventing marriage is punishable by a fine, correctional labor for up to three years, arrest for up to six months or imprisonment up to three years.
Compiled from:
Legislation Online, Uzbekistan, Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, No. 2012-XII (22 September 1994).
Legislation Online, Uzbekistan, Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities (Draft law, proposed 2002) (posted 27 June 2005).
The Advocates for Human Rights, Domestic Violence in Uzbekistan (December 2000) (PDF, 74 pages).
Umid Design Team, Umid World, Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan (effective 8 December 1992).
United Nations, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 36th session, Concluding Comments: Uzbekistan (25 August 2006) (PDF, 7 pages). (Note: for Committee information prior to 31 December 2007, please click here.)
U.S. Department of State; Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2007: Uzbekistan (11 March 2008).
U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons Report 2008: Uzbekistan (4 June 2008).