Saida Mirziyoyeva, a member of the Commission on Gender Equality, commented on the news about the early release of those convicted of child molestation.
“I experienced great disappointment and pain when I learned that the 3 men who molested a teenager were released on parole. They returned to normal life, continue to work with children.
Laws of the republic governing protection of the rights of minors care more about criminals than about children, and, in my opinion, there is an urgent need to correct this injustice.
Articles 128 and 129 of the Criminal Code do not meet international standards in the field of protecting children and adolescents. For such crimes, in principle, there should be no punishment in the form of restriction of liberty or correctional labor. These articles need to be tightened, serious deadlines should be applied to them without the possibility of early release.
In the meantime, too mild punishments do not frighten potential criminals and provoke lynching.
It must be remembered that children and adolescents are easy to manipulate, they are easy to intimidate, they cannot be consciously responsible for their behavior. In each case, the blame rests entirely with the adult.
Let’s be careful about children, not rapists.
Legislation in this area needs to be reviewed, and the sooner the better,” Saida Mirziyoyeva wrote on her Telegram page.
