President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed legislation imposing life imprisonment for sexual violence against children under 14, as the government simultaneously announced a 30% rise in heating tariffs, dismissed the defense minister, reshuffled four Tashkent district governors, and arrested a deputy district governor for a $25,000 bribe.
A visually impaired resident of Karakul district identified and refused a 10 million soum cash demand linked to a land subsidy application after listening to an audio guide on anti-corruption law — the first practical test of a legal literacy project that has since reached more than 40,000 people across Uzbekistan.
A joint study by UNDP and the Anti-Corruption Agency, presented at a Tashkent roundtable on 25 May 2026, found that healthcare and education are the sectors where women are most exposed to corruption, while nearly 70% of respondents linked informal social practices to the spread of corrupt behaviour.
A regional round table convened in Tashkent on 29 November 2022 brought together police, prosecutors and legal educators from four Central Asian countries to examine how corruption and institutional shortcomings obstruct the protection of women and girls from violence.
A third of the country’s teachers have been rated unsatisfactory in their own subjects, base salaries remain well below a presidential pledge, and documented incidents of officials publicly humiliating educators have accelerated a flight from the profession that is hollowing out public schooling.
