A/HRC/4/33/Add.2 Page 121 677. In 2006 three large-scale events on the CAT were held in the legislative chamber of the Parliament together with the United Nations Development programme (UNDP). In January 2006 a parliamentary inquiry in the acts of lawenforcement organs and the penitentiary system of the city and the region of Tashkent was conducted to examine compliance with CAT. In June 2006 a three-day seminar with UNDP entitled “Implementation of CAT in the national legislation” was held, in which parliamentarians, law enforcement staff, lawyers, academics and professors participated. In December 2006 the Parliament’s Committee on International Affairs and interparliamentary relations of the Legislative Chamber, together with UNDP, conducted a round table entitled “Improving the Legislation in Conformity with CAT”. 678. Recommendation (b) stated: The Government should amend its domestic penal law to include the crime of torture the definition of which should be fully consistent with article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and supported by an adequate penalty. 679. The Government informed that article 235 of the Criminal Code reads as follows: “The use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, i.e. illegal mental or physical coercion of a suspect, accused, witness, victim or other accomplice in a criminal act, or a person serving his/her sentence, or his/her relative by threats, beatings, assaults, torture or other illegal actions, done by an inspector of inquiry, investigator, prosecutor or other official of a law-enforcement body or penitentiary institution in order to obtain from him/her information or a confession of a crime, for unauthorized punishment for a crime, or in order to coerce any action, shall be punished with reformatory work or imprisonment for a period up to three years.” 680. Recommendation (c) stated: The Government should also amend its domestic penal law to include the right to habeas corpus, thus providing anyone who is deprived of his or her liberty by arrest or detention the right to take proceedings before an independent judicial body which may decide promptly on the lawfulness of the deprivation of liberty and order the release of the person if the deprivation of liberty is not lawful. 681. According to information received from NGOs and other sources, legislation providing for and implementing the right to habeas corpus has not been enacted thus far. 682. The Government informed that the NGOs’ claims that habeas corpus has not been introduced into the law are unfounded. In accordance with article 19 of the Constitution, the rights and freedoms of citizens are inviolable and only a court has the right to restrict them, which shows that Uzbekistan recognises international human rights norms and standards. The most democratic and civilised means of protecting human rights is through the judiciary. In the course of reform of the judicial system, the question of judicial control over investigators and interrogators was considered. The Presidential Decree “On the transfer of the right to sanction pre-trial detention to the courts” implements this principle as contained in international documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This decree foresees that, starting from 1 January 2008; judges will sanction pre-trial detention of suspects and accused persons. It defines that pre-trial detention should be applied in exceptional cases only, when the use of other legal prevention measures would be ineffective and can be decided upon only by criminal chambers of courts or military courts in accordance with their competencies. The reasons why this new measure will be applied from 2008 on are that the criminal-procedure and the penitentiary codes and other laws have to be amended, that the international practice in