In 2022, the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Tajikistan received four written and six oral complaints about violence against children, Suhaili, head of the department for state protection of children’s rights in the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus after a press conference. Kodiri.
According to him, out of 10 appeals, only 4 cases were confirmed and these facts concerned only bullying by peers at school.
Bullying (from English bullying – intimidation, bullying) is the systematic and prolonged bullying of a group or one person over a child or adult.
In this context, Kodiri emphasized that the problem of bullying in schools in Tajikistan is relevant, especially in urban schools, where, unlike rural schools, these facts are 15% more.
“To prevent such cases, we conducted a survey in six focus groups, which included 57 questions on various types of violence,” Kodiri said. “Out of 60 respondents, it turned out that 45% of them are bullied by peers, high school students and even teachers.”
Those claims that were not confirmed, he said, were related to the fact that “single mothers slandered their ex-husbands for selfish purposes or relatives who live with them in order to evict those from the apartment.”
“Violence against children has decreased”
Suhaili Kodiri emphasized that in recent years the number of cases of violence, including rape of minors, has been decreasing.
“This year, for example, we were not contacted on such facts, but in 2021 we were contacted – two facts of child rape were revealed, in one of them the child died,” the source said.
According to him, this decrease in the number of such crimes is confirmed by the statistics provided by law enforcement agencies, according to which in 2022 there were 8 fewer rapes.
In particular, in 2022, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan, 60 facts of such crimes were registered, of which 11 were violence, and 49 were violent acts of a sexual nature (2021 violence 19 facts and 57 sexual violence).Hard punishment for rapists
Kodiri connects the downward trend in such crimes in recent years, except for the period of the pandemic, when they were on the rise, with the tightening of the laws.
At the beginning of 2022, a working group was created that developed several options for these changes to both the Criminal, Family and Labor Codes.
The amendments were included in article 139 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan, which previously did not provide for life imprisonment for persons committing rape of minors that resulted in death.Amendments were also made to both the Criminal Code and the Labor Code, according to which such persons are prohibited from working for life in all areas that relate to children, including their leisure and culture.
Now, according to the amendments, all citizens are required to provide a certificate of good conduct when applying for a job.
Children don’t have their own space
Kodiri emphasized that children in Tajikistan are more often subjected to violence by relatives or acquaintances.
“It has historically developed in our society that in addition to parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives live in the same house - uncles, aunts, others, which leads to violence against children by relatives,” he stressed.The second factor why this happens, according to him, is that “Tajik children do not have their own personal space.”
“Children often do not have their own room, and children are also present at all events on an equal basis with adults, even watching movies, TV programs in families is not divided by age,” he said.
Source: Asia Plus