The Head of the state proposed to introduce the following important provision into the Constitution: “The death penalty is prohibited in Uzbekistan”.
Here, many may have the question that the death penalty has already been abolished in our country, so why add this to the Constitution? The fact is that the ban on the death penalty is not a simple norm. This is the most important rule of the unconditional guarantee of a person’s right to life, and it should be enshrined in the Basic Law.
The most important task of reforming the judicial system of our country is the gradual liberalization of legislative acts on crime, criminal procedure legislation, and the criminal justice system.
Over the past years, the system of implementation of punishment in criminal cases has been radically liberalized. It is fixed that the main purpose of punishment is the correction of a person and not his punishment. In particular, it was determined that when covering the damage caused for economic crimes, punishments related to deprivation of liberty will not be applied, and the paragraphs where punishments were defined in the form of confiscation of property, detention, and the death penalty were removed from the Criminal Code. Also, in the absence of death or other serious consequences, the punishment in the form of deprivation of the right to engage in entrepreneurial activity will not be applied to persons engaged in entrepreneurial activity.
The list of crimes included in several grave crimes has been sharply reduced, alternative punishments not related to deprivation of liberty have been expanded, and the institution of reconciliation has been introduced. Several other policy measures have been taken to liberalize the criminal justice system.
Undoubtedly, the abolition of the death penalty is of particular importance in the liberalization of criminal penalties.
Over the years of independence, cases of the death penalty have been gradually reduced. Previously, the criminal law had more than 30 articles providing for the death penalty.
Thus, the number of such articles in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1994 was reduced to 13, in 1998 – to 8, and in 2001 – to 4. After the implementation of comprehensive measures to liberalize the criminal legislation in 2003, the death penalty was provided only for two types of criminal liability – premeditated murder and terrorism.
The criminal policy of our state is fully consistent with modern trends in the application of the death penalty in the world and consistently reflects the principles of humanity and justice, enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The need for respecting human dignity in the country, bringing the process of liberalization of the judiciary to an irreversible stage, requires the provision in the Constitution of a norm prohibiting the death penalty. Because recently, some citizens are offering to return the death penalty. Of course, everyone's opinion should be taken into account. However, this proposal does not correspond to the essence and content of the reforms being implemented in the country to increase the dignity and value of a person. In addition, life is given by the Almighty, and only he has the right to take it. The fact that the death penalty has been abolished and is no longer applied in our country at the constitutional level is proof that we are on the right way from a humanitarian point of view.
Farkhod Primov,
Ph.D. in Law, Associate Professor
