Marriage between close relatives on the lateral line could be banned in Uzbekistan in proposed amendment to the Family Code prepared by the State Committee for Women and Family Affairs.

Lateral relatives are brothers and sisters, their children, brothers and sisters of the father and mother, their children, brothers and sisters of grandparents, their children, and so on.

Now the code prohibits marriage between relatives in a direct ascending and descending line, between full and half brothers and sisters, as well as between adoptive parents and the adopted.

An explanatory note to the bill, citing data from the registry office, states that in the second half of 2021 (July-December), 1,210 marriages were registered in Uzbekistan between close relatives - cousins ​​and sisters. By provinces, more than half of all cases - 58% - fell on only two provinces - Surkhandarya (343) and Kashkadarya (371). Reportedly, among children in such marriages there are children with congenital anomalies under the age of 1 year, deformation and chromosomal disorders.

The number of children with disabilities detected under the age of 1 year increased from 2,592 in 2018 to 3,374 in 2020, or by 30.1%, congenital anomalies (malformations) under the age of 1 year, deformity and chromosomal 1093 in 2018 to 1292 in 2020, or 18.2%.

“This causes an increase in negative demographic trends, the emergence of new problems associated with the socialization of such children,” the note says.

The initiators of the amendment note that it is in line with Article 11 of the Convention on the Conclusion and Validity of Marriages (The Hague, March 14, 1978), which states that the state may refuse to recognize the validity of a marriage if the spouses are related to each other by blood relationship.

The note also added that there was a ban on marriage between close third-degree lateral relatives in China, Japan, the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Ireland, South Korea, New Zealand, Tajikistan and other countries.