Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan must make improvements in the areas of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and privacy and respect for the opinions of children. In addition, corruption in the country must be fought in order to implement children's rights.

While noting that students can seek advice from school nurses on reproductive health, there is no mandatory and comprehensive sex education in school curricula as it is considered to be “against national values”.

The Committee urges the State party to adopt a human rights-based approach to disability and specifically recommends that it undertake awareness-raising programmes, including campaigns, on eliminating discrimination against children with disabilities, and strengthen its enforcement mechanisms for ensuring compliance with its legislation prohibiting such discrimination. It further recommends to establish a system for disaggregated data collection and analysis on children with disabilities to guide the development of policies and programmes to ensure the full and equal fulfilment of the rights of children with disabilities. Additionally, the Committee recommends that the State Party establish a clear legislative definition of disability which is in compliance with the Convention, including for learning, cognitive and mental disabilities, with the aim of accurately identifying children with disabilities in order to effectively address their needs, including for inclusive education, in a non-discriminatory manner.

Uzbekistan should also adopt a social model approach, addressing attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder the full and effective participation of children with disabilities in society on an equal basis, including by adapting curricula and implementing disability-friendly building-codes, and training all professionals working with or for children with disabilities accordingly.

To guarantee every child the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, the Committee recommends that the State party undertake further reforms for strengthening its health sector, including by ensuring adequate measures for eliminating the practice of informal fees and realizing the constitutional Right to qualified medical care free of charge for all persons. Uzbekistan should also ensure the allocation of adequate human, technical and financial resources in all State health-care facilities to ensure the availability of, inter alia, required medicines, utilities and hygiene materials. In addition, the Committee recommends to undertake a comprehensive study on the specific causes of infant, child and maternal mortality and use its findings for implementing concrete measures to reduce and prevent such mortality and increase the State party’s allocation of human, technical and financial resources for vaccinations to ensure their long-term sustainability independent of donor funding.

The Committee recommends that the State party establish and implement regulations to ensure that the business sector complies with international and national human rights, labour, environment and other standards. In particular, it recommends that the State party establish a clear regulatory framework for the industries operating in the State party to ensure that their activities do not negatively affect human rights or endanger environmental and other standards, especially those relating to children’s and women’s rights. Uzbekistan should also ensure effective implementation by companies, especially industrial companies, of international and national environment and health standards, effective monitoring of implementation of these standards and appropriately sanctioning and providing remedies when violations occur, as well as ensure that appropriate international certification is sought as well as require companies to undertake assessments, consultations, and full public disclosure of the environmental, health-related and human rights impacts of their business activities and their plans to address such impacts.

The Committee urges the State party to establish a juvenile justice system, including juvenile courts, on the basis of a comprehensive legal framework for a juvenile justice system, as well as diversion measures to prevent children in conflict with the law from entering the formal justice system. The Committee also urges to ensure the provision of qualified and impartial legal aid to children in conflict with the law at an early stage of the procedure and throughout the legal proceedings as well as to ensure the proper and timely investigation of all cases of alleged mistreatment and subject perpetrators of such mistreatment to commensurate sanctions. Uzbekistan should further ensure that detention is a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time, and that it is reviewed on a regular basis with a view to its withdrawal as well as also ensure that children are not, including in relation to police custody, detained together with adults. Additionally, in instances where detention is unavoidable, Uzbekistan should ensure that the conditions for this are compliant with international standards and ensure that all children deprived of their liberty have effective access to education and health services.

The Committee remains gravely concerned about the severity and pervasiveness of corruption in the State party, particularly regarding birth registration and the issuance of birth certificates, access to health care and education, which constitutes a serious obstacle to the effective use of the State party’s resources and the implementation of the Convention. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned that current sanctions against perpetrators of corruption are insufficient.

Concluding observations on the third and fourth periodic reports released on 10 July 2013. More information about education in Uzbekistan: LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN and Preschool in Uzbekistan