A/HRC/44/47/Add.3 rights activities. According to the results of the preliminary investigation the Prosecutor's office of Ferghana city 24.01.2020 made the decision about refusal in excitation of criminal case under paragraph 2 of article 83 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan in connection with absence of corpus delicti in the actions of law enforcement officials. 11. According to the arguments about the prosecution of civil activist A. Madmarov on 27.01.2020, a decision was made to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings on the basis of paragraph 2 of article 83 of the Criminal Procedure code of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 12. The above-mentioned decision was studied by the General Prosecutor’ Office (GPO) and was recognized as legal. 13. In order to ensure a complete, comprehensive and objective consideration of the Special Rapporteur’s appeal regarding the persecution of A. Turgunov, the prosecutor’s office of the Almazar district of Tashkent conducted an inspection. In the course of the inspection, officials of the prosecutor's office and internal affairs bodies of Almazar district made repeated attempts to contact A. Turgunov, but it was not possible to contact him. However, it was found that A. Turgunov had not contacted law enforcement or government agencies about his prosecution. During the inspection, the facts of A. Turgunov's harassment or intimidation by law enforcement agencies were not established. In view of the above, on 19 February 2020, the Almazar District Procurator's Office issued a decision on 19 February 2020, based on paragraph 2 of article 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, refusing to institute criminal proceedings for lack of corpus delicti in anyone's actions. The abovementioned decision was studied by the GPO’s Unit on supervision over the investigation by the prosecutors' offices, and was recognized as legal. 14. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur's report states that he has additional information and reliable evidence of acts of persecution and harassment against other persons who met or attempted to meet with him during his official visit to Uzbekistan. In the case of the submission of evidence and information, the Prosecutor General will ensure their full, comprehensive, objective review, ensuring the safety of interested parties. IV. Challenges to the establishment of an independent and impartial judicial system А. Judges 15. Regarding paragraph 21, it is reported that in accordance with the State Program 2020, in order to improve the material and technical conditions and social guarantees for the activities of judges, it is envisaged to take measures, in 2020, to fully finance, from 2021 onwards, the salaries and other equivalent payments of judges and court officials from the State budget; to increase the salaries of judges and court officials, review and bring them in line with international standards; to design new court buildings on the basis of the best practices; to include judges on the list of managers eligible to receive official housing that are built based on standard projects in rural areas; to take other targeted measures aimed at improving the financing of judicial system and the material and technical base. 1. Threats to judicial independence 16. In paragraph 25 of the report, the Special Rapporteur notes that “institutional independence, i.e. independence in the administration of justice, which is directly related to the exercise of judicial duties, remains weak” and expresses concern that “the procedure for handling disciplinary cases against judges is still regulated via bylaws”. 4