Many countries are trying to implement the best practices of building a
genuinely democratic state. Every state has its model. Complex steps
must be taken for that purpose. Educating society, ensuring civic
participation, respecting the customs and traditions of people,
respecting their values and religious freedom, ensuring human rights,
and respecting other countries are among many steps to be taken to
build a genuinely democratic state.
Accordingly, Uzbekistan has also been implementing international
best practices of good governance. Very importantly, these processes
have been happening based on its longtime statehood experience,
centuries-old common values and traditions of people living in
Uzbekistan.
To ensure civic participation, dialogue with people is the cornerstone
of reforms and changes happening in the country. As such, important
decisions are made, including adopting laws and strategic documents,
only after public consultations. Various channels and mechanisms are
available in Uzbekistan to successfully coordinate public
consultations. Uzbekistan's president states that society should be the
one that initiates reforms, and public officials must serve the people,
not vice versa.
To ensure democracy, ministries and agencies must operate openly
and transparently. As such, all-level public officials are now reporting
to society and parliament. They have to publish their decisions on
electronic platforms that anybody can observe. This also ensures the
accountability of the officials.
The country has been implementing administrative reforms to bring
officials closer to the people and decentralise the authority so people
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can solve their issues in their neighbourhoods. Besides, Uzbekistan
has been decreasing state apparatus to reduce bureaucracy.
Uzbekistan has also become very active in international relations and
thus comes up with essential initiatives for humankind.
Accordingly, Uzbek society wants these positive democratic changes
to continue. As such, they think legal assurance at the highest level is
essential. Therefore, the people initiated constitutional reforms in
Uzbekistan and expressed more than 220 thousand comments and
suggestions on what they would like to see in the new Constitution.
Hence, 65% of the Constitution is changing now. Public discussions
were conducted several times in that regard.
The main cornerstone of these reforms is ensuring human rights and
interests and protecting human dignity. Therefore, norms related to
human rights are increasing more than 3 times. For example, the
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constitutional amendments would guarantee the presumption of
innocence for all suspects and accused and thus enable them to
exercise the right to remain silent. Besides, this would also provide the
right not to testify against themselves or family members. New
amendments also foresee a possibility of preventing a person from
being found guilty or punished if their confession is the only evidence
brought against them.
Protecting religious freedom and freedom of expression is also an
important policy priority in multinational Uzbekistan. Therefore, New
Constitution foresees strengthening the guarantee of freedom of
activity for all religious organisations operating by Uzbekistan's laws.
To increase transparency and openness, New Constitution also
foresees more freedom of activity for the media, covering their rights
to seek, receive, use and disseminate information.
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In addition, strengthening the constitutional basis for forming and
developing civil society institutions in the country is also prioritised.
For the first time, New Constitution defines civil society institutions.
It highlights their role in maintaining openness and transparency in
society by providing dialogue and establishing robust public oversight.
Furthermore, strengthening the rights of access to proper education
and healthcare, housing and environmental rights, employment rights
and personal data protection are also envisaged in the New
Constitution.
A significant example of democracy is that the parliament could have
changed the Constitution according to the current Constitution. But the
President of Uzbekistan suggested that the people of Uzbekistan
should decide. As such, it was decided to hold a referendum in
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Uzbekistan on April 30 th . These steps also guarantee democratic
principles, i.e., the participation of citizens in governance.
Overall, by shifting the principle "state – society – person" to "person –
society – state" and prioritising an individual's interests, the New
Constitution creates an essential legal basis and foundation for the
population's well-being. Moreover, it strengthens dynamic democratic
processes in Uzbekistan and the country's transformation into a
socially oriented market economy and well-governed state.
Eldor TULYAKOV,
The Executive Director,
Development Strategy Center of Uzbekistan