Mirziyoyev instructs to tighten criminal liability for recruitment of minors as mercenaries

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to develop a draft law providing for stricter standards of responsibility for recruitment of persons under eighteen years of age as mercenaries.

According to the decree of the head of state, the Prosecutor General’s Office, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the National Center for Human Rights, should draft and submit to the Legislative Chamber a draft law within three months.

The new law will introduce amendments and addenda to the Criminal Code on strengthening the rules of responsibility for recruiting minors as mercenaries.

According to the law, the recruitment, training, financing or other material support of minors as a mercenary, as well as using them in armed conflict or hostilities, is punished with imprisonment from seven to twelve years.

It is also planned to make proposals on amendments and addenda to the Law “On guarantees of the rights of the child”, providing for types of harassment and violence against children, as well as measures to prevent them; additional guarantees for the protection of children who are participants in criminal proceedings during pre-trials and trials.

In addition, the president instructed to make proposals for amendments and addenda to the Law “On the Prevention of Offenses”, providing for the introduction of adaptation mechanisms for children who have committed offenses and have not reached the age of eighteen years, instead of putting them on preventive registration.

The decree also states that a draft law should be submitted to the Legislative Chamber to implement Article 135 of the Criminal Code, which envisages responsibility for trafficking in persons, with the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (25 May 2000, New York).