Turkmenistan

Article 22 

Each individual has the right to life and liberty and the exercise (of this right). No one can be deprived of the right to life. The right of each person to free life is protected by the state on the basis of law. 

Article 26 

Every citizen has the right to move freely and choose their place of residence in Turkmenistan. 

Restrictions on entry into separate territories, and movement in those territories, can only be set by law. 

Article 27 

Men and women having reached the marriageable age have the right, by mutual consent, to marry and create families. Spouses have equal rights in family relations. 

Article 33 

Citizens have the right to work, choice of profession at their own discretion, sort of employment and place of work, to safe and healthy working conditions. 

Wage earners are entitled to compensation, appropriate to amount and quality of work. This compensation cannot be less than the subsistence minimum established by the state. 

Article 34 

Citizens have the right to rest, as expressed in establishment of limits of work week, grant of annual paid holidays, and days of weekly rest. 

The State creates favourable conditions for recreation and use of leisure time. 

TURKMENISTAN’S CONSTITUTION 2008 (PDF)

Article 162. Forcing a woman to marry or obstruction of marriage  

(1) I Am forcing a woman to marry or to continue marital cohabitation, as well as preventing a woman to enter into the marriage of their choice, with violence or threat of violence, punishable by a fine in the amount of from twenty to thirty average monthly wages, or correctional labor for up to two years, or imprisonment for up to two years.  

(2) Forcing a person who has not attained marriageable age, to join the actual marriage, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years 

Article 1291. Trafficking in human beings  

(1) Trafficking in human beings, i.e. the purchase/ sale of a person, or his/ her recruiting, transportation, harbouring or transfer to another person, committed for the purpose of his/ her exploitation, shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term from four to ten years.  

(2) The same act committed:  

а) against two or more persons;  

б) against a person who is known to the perpetrator to be a minor;  

в) with the use of official powers;  

г) related to illegally moving the abducted person across the State Border of Turkmenistan or illegally keeping him/ her outside the State Border of Turkmenistan;  

д) with the use of violence or threat of using thereof;  

e) for the purpose of extracting organs and tissues from the abducted person for transplantation shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term from eight to fifteen years.

(3) The acts mentioned by parts one or two of this Article:  

а) if they have resulted in the victim’s death by negligence or infliction of grave bodily harm upon the victim or other grave consequences;  

б) committed in a manner endangering the lives and health of several persons;  

в) committed by a criminal group or by a criminal organization;  

shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term from fifteen totwenty five years. 

Criminal Code (PDF)

Article 8. Prohibition of forced or compulsory laboUr  

1. Forced or compulsorylaboris prohibited.  
2. Forced or compulsorylaboris considered to be all work (service) required by any person under the menace of any penalty and for which said person has not He offered himself voluntarily. Forced or compulsorylabor also include the requirement on the part of employer to the employee to perform job duties in the absence of systems collective or personal protection or in the case where the required execution the work is likely to endanger the life or health of the employee, as well as the violation of the the timing of payment of wages or payment is not the full amount, the increase in working hours without adequate remuneration. 

Labour Code (PDF)

Article 1. Basic Concepts  

The following basic concepts are used in the law:  

trafficking in persons – a set of actions, such as recruitment, purchase, sale, transportation within one or several countries, handing over or holding a person or a group of people by threatening to use force or using force, trapping them into bonded labour or other forms of coercion, abduction, deception, fraud, abuse of power, or by using their vulnerability, adopting children for commercial purposes, or by offering payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation; 

forced labour – any work or services required of a person under the threat of punishment or by other means of coercion to which this person did not consent voluntarily;  

exploitation – forced labour or services, servitude or customs relates to servitude, servile status or removal of human organs and/or tissues, and other forms of exploitation for the purpose of committing sexual actions;  

servitude – a status or the state of a person treated with some or all features pertaining to the right of property;  

debt-bondage – a condition or a state under which the debtor pledges his personal labour or the labour of someone dependent on them in order to pay off their debts, if the value of such work does not count toward redeeming the debt, or if such work is not limited in time, or if the nature of this work and compensation for it are not defined; 

Article 5. Methods and forms of exploitation to which trafficking victims are subject  

1. Exploitation of trafficking victims may be carried out through the following means: physical coercion along with violence and/or narcotic and psychoactive substances, alcohol and other potent agents; economic coercion in the form of debt-bondage or other financial dependence, including servitude or conditions similar to servitude; psychological persuasion by means of blackmailing, deceiving, deluding or threatening to use violence; and legal dependence as a result of adoption, guardianship or entry into marriage without the purpose of starting a family. 
2. Exploitation of trafficking victims may be of the following types: exploitation of physiological organs and tissues of humans for the purpose of transplantation; exploitation of a woman as a surrogatemother; exploitation of human labour in daily economic activities (household and daily services), production, agricultural works and illegal business (involvement in armed groups or production of illicit goods); sexual exploitation; and exploitation of a person for the purpose of using them for armed conflicts or military actions. 
3. In case a trafficking victim consented to some form of exploitation within any specific action related to trafficking in persons, such consent shall be disregarded provided that any type of influence related to trafficking in persons was inflicted on a person.

Article 20. Liability for trafficking in persons  

1. Physical and legal entities involved in crimes related to trafficking in persons shall be held liable in accordance with Turkmenistan’s legislation. 
2. In case a court detects cases of trafficking in persons through a legal entity in Turkmenistan intentionally covering trafficking in persons, such legal entity shall be eliminated following the resolution of a local court. 
3. In case of recognizing a legal entity belonging to another country (its representative office or branch) by court as an organization involved in trafficking in persons, the court shall issue a resolution prohibiting the activities of such legal entity in Turkmenistan, and all its representative offices and subsidiaries in Turkmenistan shall be closed down. 
4. All assets of a legal entity (its representative office or branch) mentioned in Item 2 and 3 of thisarticlewhich were obtained through illegal means shall be seized and given to the state following a court resolution. 

LAW ON COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (PDF)