DUSHANBE, December 25, 2013 Asia-Plus — Deputies of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament have unanimously endorsed the bill introducing Article 133’ (2) “Slavery and Slave Labor” into Tajikistan’s Penal Code.
A regular sitting of the fifth session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the fourth convocation, presided over by its head, Shukurjon Zuhurov, was held on December 25.
Presenting the bill, First Deputy Minister of Justice, Abdumannon Kholiqov, noted that Article 133’ (2) stipulates that slavery and use of slave labor is punishable by 5 to 12 years in prison.
According to him, the United Nations estimates that there are 27 million slaves in the world today. “In the post-Soviet republics, there are more than 600,000 slaves,” the deputy minister noted.
“The government has also offered to introduce an article criminalizing child porn videos. These crimes are also equated with especially grave crimes,” Kholiqov said.
Parliamentarians also supported government’s initiative to punish founders of so-called short-lived companies.
We will recall that the Slavery Convention (article 1.1) in 1926 defined slavery as “…the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised….”
The 1926 Convention”s definition of slavery was broadened to include forced or compulsory labor in 1930 in the ILO Convention (No. 29) concerning Forced or Compulsory Labor (Article 2.1): “…all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
