Jahon news agency of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry published press release dated 8 April on adoption of the laws "On ratification of the Minimum Age Convention (Geneva, 26 June 1973)" and "On ratification of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (Geneva, 17 June 1999)".

The release said the adoption of the laws testifies the fact that Uzbekistan is aiming to have a close international cooperation in this sphere. Uzbekistan actively participates in implementation of many documents on protection of human and child rights, and in particular, five of the eight fundamental conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

"The adoption of these documents is particularly important in terms of announcement of 2008 as the Year of Youth in Uzbekistan. In this context, the country where the youth at the age of up to 18 years old makes up almost half of entire population has set the most important and priority objectives: these are the protection of rights and interests of young generation, gaining by them the contemporary knowledge and professions, training the new generation cadres able to occupy a worthy place in society," the release said.

The ratification of these conventions will allow to increase Uzbekistan’s international authority, which provides for application of international and legal norms on protection of rights of children and teenagers.