The document said that Uzbekistan has acceded to more than 70 international treaties relating to the protection of human rights, and over 30 national reports to relevant UN committees on their compliance. There is a well-coordinated system of national institutions for protection of human rights and freedoms, including the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Oliy Majlis (Ombudsman), the National Center for Human Rights, the prosecutor’s office, justice, and internal affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

On a systemic basis, organizational and legal measures are taken to strengthen the system of ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens.

In particular, in pursuance of the Strategy for the five priority development directions of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021, more than 50 legislative acts have been adopted providing for genuine independence and independence of the judiciary, improving the quality and transparency of justice, and expanding the use of the Habeas Corpus.

The abolition of the procedure for the return of criminal cases by the courts for purpose of additional investigation made it possible to increase the responsibility of the judicial and investigative authorities for establishing the truth and other circumstances, which are important for proper resolution of the case, as well as the adoption of a lawful, justified and just decision.

As a result, in just 10 months of 2017, courts issued acquittals against 191 persons, whereas in the previous five years only 7 persons were acquitted. In addition, in the current year, preliminary investigative bodies for rehabilitating and other reasons have stopped 3511 criminal cases.

At the same time, an analysis of law enforcement practice, a generalization of the results of an open dialogue with the population, testify to the existence of legal gaps in the legislation that prevent the legality and objectivity in the collection, consolidation, verification and evaluation of evidence in the investigation and consideration of criminal cases.

These circumstances negatively affect the effectiveness of measures to protect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens and, as a result, lead to justified discontent of the population, a decrease in its confidence in law enforcement bodies and a belief in the impartiality of the court.

In this regard, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted the Decree “On additional measures to strengthen guarantees of citizens’ rights and freedoms in forensic investigations”, the main objectives of which are observance of the rights and freedoms of citizens in forensic investigation, further improvement of the criminal procedural and criminal executive legislation, ensuring the practical implementation of such constitutional principles as the rule of law, the equality of citizens before the law, humanism, justice and presumption innocence.

In accordance with article 11 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Uzbekistan, any derogation from exact execution and compliance with the norms of laws, whatever the reasons, is a violation of the law in the criminal process and entails an established responsibility.

The head of state in his decree drew the primary attention of law enforcement and judicial bodies to the need for strict compliance with this requirement.

These bodies are warned about inadmissibility of using as evidence in criminal cases data obtained with significant violations of procedural law or illegal methods. Among such violations and unacceptable methods are torture, psychological and physical pressure, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The decree prohibits introduction of additional requirements restricting the principle of open proceedings in criminal cases in courts, except in cases directly envisaged in the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The document stated that the evidence of the victim, witness, suspect, accused, defendant, expert’s conclusion, material evidence, audio and video recordings and other materials, received in violation of the procedural law norms, is not accepted as evidence.

In view of the gap in the legislation, criminal responsibility for falsifying evidence is introduced in Uzbekistan. There is also increased responsibility for perjury and false denunciation.

A number of additional guarantees are being introduced to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of the participants in the criminal proceedings.

The presidential decree said that the detained person, who has been placed in absentia with a preventive measure in the form of detention, is given the right to appeal the decision in court within 72 hours from the moment of his delivery to the relevant competent authority.

The prosecutors and courts will consider complains about allegations on use of unlawful methods during collection of evidences. During the inspection, a medical examination is mandatory, the document said.

The decree underlined that main procedural actions should be video recorded to ensure lawfulness and objectivity of data collection during investigation. Law enforcement bodies should record inspection of the serious crime scene, search, verification of the testimony at the scene and investigative experiment.

The document said that the lawyers had the right to collect not evidence, but information that can be used as evidence, which violated the principle of adversarial proceedings in court. Therefore, the defender is entitled to collect and present evidence, which are subject to attachment to the materials of the criminal case.

An important role in ensuring the legality of the collection and consolidation of evidence is assigned to the prosecutor, who must necessarily verify compliance with the requirements of the law on immediate registration and the resolution of applications, communications and other information about crimes received from persons serving sentences of imprisonment, detainees, detainees or subjected to administrative arrest. The prosecutor is also responsible for taking measures to prevent the provision of psychological or physical influence on these individuals or their close relatives, deceiving them regarding exemption from liability.

The prosecutor’s examination will cover the legality of applying disciplinary punishment to convicted persons for violating the order of serving a sentence in the form of deprivation of liberty. This will prevent possible abuses in places of deprivation of liberty under the pretext of convicts committing disciplinary violations.

The listed measures will be reflected in the corresponding bill, which will be introduced by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the order of legislative initiative.

In addition, the authorized bodies are given a number of organizational instructions.

In particular, it is entrusted to install video surveillance equipment in pre-trial detention centers, temporary detention facilities and special receivers, places of administrative arrest.

Based on the study of advanced foreign experience, proposals will be developed to further improve legislation and methodology for investigating and reviewing criminal cases, expanding the use of innovative forms and methods for the production of forensic investigations, streamlining and simplifying criminal proceedings.