"We must not wait for a terrible event." Tanzila Narbaeva on protecting children from violence

"We must not wait for a terrible event." Tanzila Narbaeva on protecting children from violence

The Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, Tanzila Narbaeva, called on government bodies not to limit themselves to reacting to high-profile cases of violence against children, but to systematically study the application of legislation and the causes that make such crimes possible.

She said this on October 2 during the discussion of the law on strengthening the protection of children from violence.

Addressing the representative of the Ministry of Justice, Tanzila Narbaeva emphasized that justice authorities must constantly analyze how well legislation works in practice, rather than getting involved in the problem only after high-profile incidents.

"We must not wait every time for some event to happen, and only then react and express our position. The task of the justice authorities is to constantly analyze how legislation is applied in practice," she said.

According to her, the Ministry of Justice must also ensure access to legal aid for children and their legal representatives, explain the procedure for seeking protection, and assist in preparing the necessary documents.

She spoke separately on the legal training of teachers, employees of children's institutions, and mahalla activists who work directly with children.

"With the involvement of the public, it is necessary to explain through practical examples how to identify signs of violence, whom and how to report them to, what the procedure of action is, and what responsibility is provided for concealing such cases," the senator stated.

The Senate Chairperson called it wrong when society and government bodies begin to actively react only after information about a tragedy appears online: "It is absolutely wrong when all of us remain observers and start reacting only after information about some terrible incident appears on the internet."

According to her, the powers of the responsible bodies for preventing such cases have already been defined, but there are implementation problems on the ground.

Narbaeva instructed to pay attention to the functioning of the child protection mechanism itself: who receives the report of violence, where and within what timeframe it is forwarded, and who is responsible for the subsequent safety of the minor.

"The main requirement is that the legal protection of children must actually work in practice," she said.

She emphasized that the work of justice authorities should not be evaluated by the number of events.

"The activities of justice authorities should be evaluated not by the number of events held, but by the number of eliminated legal obstacles and by the results of practical assistance provided to children."

The Senate Chairperson admitted that some of the measures should have been taken earlier.

"The fact that we are adopting this law after a terrible incident occurred, if we look at the situation, also shows that this should have been done earlier. Perhaps then such cases would not have happened," she admitted.

After the law is signed by the president, according to her, it is necessary to develop a separate program of measures and organize work at all levels of the justice system.

Tanzila Narbaeva dedicated a separate block of her speech to the tasks of the General Prosecutor's Office.

She stated that it is necessary to eliminate cases where reports of violence are not registered or are concealed, investigations are delayed, or unjustified refusals are issued on them.

"We must ensure that such cases do not occur in our practice at all," she emphasized.

The Prosecutor's Office, according to her, must strictly control the legality of pre-investigation checks and investigations, the completeness of evidence collection, and compliance with the procedural rights of the child.

At the same time, it is not only the actions of the person who directly committed the violence that should be evaluated.

"It is necessary to give a legal assessment to the inaction of the responsible agencies or their creation of conditions that contributed to such cases."

Narbaeva demanded "very strict measures" against officials who failed to protect a child, concealed a report of violence, or failed to perform their duties.

"So that others know about it too. For creating conditions for such cases, for such irresponsibility — it is already hard to call it just negligence, it is a crime — the relevant persons must also know that legal measures of influence are provided," she said.

The Senate Chairperson also called for analyzing every such case from the perspective of shortcomings in the work of the family, school, mahalla, and government bodies.

"Even the latest case must be analyzed and the results brought to the public. Why did this happen? After all, it was not only about this person's illness or any other circumstances. If such conditions did not exist, if they had not been created, such a case might not have happened," Narbaeva noted.

According to her, the key requirement is that responsibility must also arise for the inaction of those who left a child without protection.

Narbaeva added that increased control by the prosecutor's office should not be temporary.

"This work should not be of a campaign nature. It should not be that one incident occurred, everyone felt pain, and everyone reacted at the same time," the head of the upper house of parliament emphasized.

### Medical examinations of those working with children must not be a formality

During the discussion, senators also raised the issue of medical and psychiatric examinations of employees working with children.

Tanzila Narbaeva supported the proposal to strengthen the relevant requirements. "Especially in institutions where they work with children, this must be a strict mandatory requirement," she believes.

According to her, the Ministry of Health, together with the agencies of the education system, must review the approaches to medical examinations when hiring people to work with children.

"Medical examinations [must] not turn into a formality. Checks must be conducted objectively, with the issuance of appropriate conclusions," said the head of the Senate.

She proposed to separately define the list of positions for which a psychiatric examination will be required, as well as the grounds and procedure for conducting it. The relevant proposals, according to her, should be jointly developed by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice.

At the same time, the Senate Chairperson emphasized that the problem cannot be solved by medical examination alone.

"A medical examination in itself does not guarantee the prevention of violence. It is also necessary to properly select employees, evaluate their communication skills with children, and promptly respond to complaints," she emphasized.

According to her, the problem must be considered comprehensively with the participation of the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, and other agencies.

"We cannot limit ourselves to the approach: within the framework of the law currently under consideration, we will implement only these measures — and that's it. What we are seeing now are already the consequences," Narbaeva noted.

She called on each agency to define measures that will allow preventing such cases before a child is harmed.

"Every ministry, agency, and organization must ask itself the question: what needs to be done so that such consequences do not occur at all?" the head of the upper house of parliament pointed out.

As a reminder, senators approved the law on strengthening the protection of children from violence. The amendments provide for life imprisonment for sexual crimes against children under 14, video recording of interrogations, restrictions on working with children for persons held liable for violence, and other changes. For the law to enter into force, it must be signed by the president.

The discussion on tightening the legislation is taking place against the backdrop of a high-profile case of sexual violence against a 5-year-old female pupil of a state kindergarten in the Uchkurgan district of the Namangan region. On September 12, a criminal case was initiated under Part 4 of Article 118 of the Criminal Code (rape of a person under the age of 14), and kindergarten employee K. M. was taken into custody.