In Uzbekistan, the principles of justice and the rule of law have been elevated to the rank of necessary conditions for the country's development

In the first years of our country’s independence, reforming the judicial system became one of the topical task. In this case, adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan on December 8, 1992 became a solid legal basis for reforms in the system. Accordingly, on September 22, 1994, the first Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan was adopted, and a year later it came into force on April 1.

In contrast to the criminal law adopted during the former Union, in the new code, human dignity and rights were defined as a priority criterion. Most importantly, this code created a foundation for effective protection of the individual from criminal attacks, protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens and the interests of society and the state, as well as ensuring law and order.

Over the past years, the norms of criminal law was gradually improved based on international standards and our national experience.

Firstly, with the law of August 29, 2001 "On amendments and additions to the Criminal, Criminal Procedure Codes and Code of Administrative Responsibility of the Republic of Uzbekistan in connection with the liberalization of criminal punishments", changes and additions were made to 105 articles of the current Criminal Code regarding the liberalization of criminal punishments.

In particular, the classification of crimes defined in the Code has changed radically. About 75 percent of serious and extremely serious crimes were transferred to the category of crimes with a low social risk. The penalty of "property confiscation"was removed from the criminal punishment system, and the inviolability of property rights, one of the inalienable constitutional rights of a person, was guaranteed.

In the legislation, the institution of reconciliation was introduced, and the scope of the release of a person from criminal responsibility was expanded based on the mutual agreement of the victim and the perpetrators of the crime without the intervention of state bodies, due to the compensation of the damages caused by the crime and the restoration of the victim’s rights.In addition, the deadlines for parole and commutation of the sentence was shortened.

Secondly, on July 11, 2007, adoption of the law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislations of the Republic of Uzbekistan in connection with the abolition of the capital punishment" was an important step towards the liberalization of the criminal punishment system in our country.

Thirdly, the law of April 10, 2008 "On Amendments and Additions to certain legislations of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the issues of improving the procedure for the execution of criminal punishments in the form of fines" established the practice of applying punishments not related to social exclusion to the person who committed the crime.

Fourthly, according to the law of December 29, 2012 "On amendments and additions to certain legislations of the Republic of Uzbekistan", the changes made to the Criminal Code were a consistent continuation of large-scale work on the liberalization of the judiciary and criminal punishment system in our country. Changes in this law were primarily reflected in the liberalization of liability for crimes in the economic sphere.

It is important to study the experience of developed countries in improving mitigating circumstances, to create new methodological bases for the development of this institution. In the criminal legislation of most foreign countries, priority is given to the observance of humanitarian principles in sentencing, taking into account mitigating circumstances for the person who committed the crime.

In particular, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus provides for 11 mitigating circumstances. In the Republic of Belorussia, committing a crime by an elderly person is one of the mitigating circumstances. This procedure is also assigned in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Estonia.

In the legislation of the Federal Republic of Russia, the Republic of Azerbaijan and other countries, the immediate provision of medical and other assistance by the perpetrator to the victim after the commission of a crime is defined as a mitigating circumstance. Also, in the countries of Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia, the presence of young children in the care of the person who committed the crime is one of the mitigating circumstances.

It should be recognized, that in the last eight years, under the leadership of President ShavkatMirziyoyev, consistent reforms have been implemented in all aspects of our country's life based on the noble principle "For human dignity".

Liberalization of criminal law, which is one of the legal foundations of the judicial system, decriminalization of certain criminal acts, consistent continuation of the policy of improvement of criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal executive legislation, wide introduction of the principle of humanitarianism into the system of criminal punishments and their execution were set as priorities.

Hence, the following practical activities were carried out to further liberalizationof the current criminal legislation:

In Uzbekistan, "compulsory community service" was introduced into the criminal punishment system. Imprisonment was removed from the penal system due to the introduction of compulsory community service;

in the criminal legislation, the category of circumstances that exclude the criminality of the act includes the rule that "damage to the rights and interests protected by the Criminal Code, if the person could not control his actions (inaction) as a result of such coercion or intimidation, is not considered a crime" Article 411- was inserted;

article 244 of the Criminal Code was removed, and the responsibility for "violation of the rules of stay in the Republic of Uzbekistan", which was previously under the criminal jurisdiction, was transferred to the Administrative jurisdiction;

with the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan as of December 7, 2021 "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Documents of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Connection with the Further Improvement of the System of Ensuring the Guarantees of Children's Rights", the norm providing for criminal liability from the age of 13 was removed.

It should be noted that the adoption of the new version of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan became important in honoring human dignity in our country, reliably guaranteeing the rights, freedoms and legal interests of our citizens.

Enshrining the constitutional rule "Abolition of the capital punishment" in our fundamental law indicates that the Criminal, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Executive Codes are strictly prohibited from implementing the issue related to the application of the capital punishment.

If we mention the positive indicators achieved as a result of comprehensive reforms in the field: 1244 persons were acquitted and rehabilitated; 7,362 persons were released from prison in the courtroom in connection with the imposition of non-custodial sentences, 33,612 persons were released on parole before serving the sentence,12,286 persons were replaced with light sentences, and 13,522 persons were dismissed from the charges or reclassified, and 272 persons (young people, women, etc.) were given non-custodial sentences on the basis of letters of guarantee; as a result of the effective use of the reconciliation institution, 14,698 persons were released from criminal liability in 2023.

In short, to make the principles of justice and the rule of law the most basic and necessary condition for development in our country, in particular, to ensure the rule of law and constitutional legitimacy and to define human dignity as the main criterion of this process, to consistently continue the policy of improving criminal, criminal procedural and criminal executive legislation, consistent reforms are being carried out to introduce the principles of humanitarianism to the system of criminal punishments and their execution, to form a new image of law enforcement agencies and to direct their activities to the effective protection of public interests, human dignity, rights and freedoms.

So that, priority tasks such as reliable protection of human rights and freedoms, interests of society and the state and reliable protection of peace and security are reflected in the essence of the principle of "human - society - state" put forward by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoev.

Head of the Department
of Criminal Law of the Ministry
of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan

M.М. Kalandarov