A person, being born and coming into this world, desires a free, peaceful and prosperous life and realizes them, provided that he has the rights and freedoms to do so. The source of the realization of his dreams throughout his life is the Constitution. Any state, of course, has its Constitution, since it is it, being the Basic Law of the state, that shows its power and strength in the world.
The Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan was adopted on December 8, 1992, at the eleventh session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan of the twelfth convocation. Once in force, it established a Presidential Constitutional Republic. (The Republic of Uzbekistan is a Presidential Constitutional Republic, in which the President of Uzbekistan is the head of state. Executive power is exercised by the government and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Legislative power belongs to the two chambers of the Oliy Majlis – the Senate and the Legislative Chamber.)
The Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan consists of 6 sections and 128 articles. (The Constitution consists of a Preamble, 6 parts, 26 chapters, divided into 128 articles). It fully embodied the principles and ideas enshrined in the Declaration of Sovereignty, the Law “On the Fundamentals of State Independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan” and improved them.
Guided by the documents of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other acts recognized by international law, when developing the draft Constitution, the world constitutional practice of developed democratic states, as well as Eastern countries, was studied. The success achieved in the world in human rights, democracy and legislation was taken into account.
The preamble of the Constitution enshrined such democratic principles as loyalty to the ideas of human rights and freedoms, as well as independence, awareness of high responsibility to present and future generations, taking into account the historical experience of Uzbek statehood, respect for democracy, social justice and legality, recognition of the supremacy of generally recognized rules of international law, the desire to ensure a decent life for Uzbekistan citizens, the noble goals of building a democratic legal state and, finally, ensuring civil peace and national tranquility.
One of the benefits of independence is the recognition in the adopted Constitution, as the highest value, of human rights, as well as the definition in it of the priority principles of serving both the state and society, and first of all, the human interests. In addition, it reflects the fact that ensuring the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens is the responsibility of the state.
We can say that it is today in Uzbekistan that a person becomes not a means, but the main meaning and purpose of the existence of the state and society, the highest value.
It should be noted that each country, based on the goals and interests of its people, creates laws and improves them. As the Head of the state noted, life does not stand still, it is always in development, therefore it sets us more and more new tasks. To ensure the fulfillment of these tasks, amendments and additions were introduced to the Constitution of the country.
In recent years, large-scale reforms have been carried out, new laws have been adopted to implement the tasks set in the Concept for further deepening democratic reforms and the formation of civil society in the country.
“To move forward, “it is necessary to improve the Basic Law, which will determine our current and future development”. If we turn to world experience, we will see that constitutional reforms were carried out in many states during the period of cardinal changes”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized. The President noted that the implementation of the Country Development Strategy requires a constitutional basis and an even stronger legislative base. “In this sense, the coordination of the Basic Law with the modern realities of our society, the essence of our consistent reforms, as well as the creation of a solid legal foundation for the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan, becomes an important task”, the Head of the state emphasized and listed nine main areas of constitutional reforms. The previously operating principle “state – society – person” will be replaced by a new one: “person – society – state”. In the process of economic reforms, the main criterion will be the provision of human interests. The role and status of civil society institutions will be enshrined in the Constitution. The constitutional foundations for the development of the family institution, careful communication to future generations of traditional human values, and further strengthening of interethnic harmony in the country will be determined. The Constitution will reflect the state youth policy, issues of comprehensive support for young people, their rights and obligations. The principle “New Uzbekistan – social state” will be enshrined as a constitutional norm. The issues of preventing child labor, reliable protection of the rights of the disabled, representatives of the older generation will also be included in the Basic Law. A section devoted to legal norms in the environmental sphere will appear in the Constitution. And finally, at the constitutional level, it was decided to consolidate the development of kindergartens, schools, higher education and science.
It can be said with full confidence that the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan is a vivid embodiment of the political and legal thinking of our people. The Basic Law serves as a guarantor of our independent, free, peaceful and prosperous life, a solid foundation for building a legal democratic state with a strong civil society and a market economy. Years, centuries will pass, but our Constitution will certainly remain the main law of life for new generations, a solid foundation for solving the problems that time will put before them.
On June 25, 2022, the newspaper “Khalq Suzi” – “Narodnoye Slovo” (People’s Word) published the draft Constitutional Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On introducing amendments and addenda to the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan”. The document contains several dozen changes and additions that are supposed to be introduced to the country’s basic law. In accordance with the draft law, the foreign policy of Uzbekistan is based on the principles of respect for human rights and freedoms, sovereign equality of states, non-use of force or threat of force, inviolability of borders, territorial integrity of states, peaceful settlement of disputes, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and other generally recognized principles and norms of international law. This document also notes that the Republic of Uzbekistan recognizes and guarantees the rights and freedoms of man and citizen in accordance with generally recognized norms of international law and in accordance with this constitution, and that the republic guarantees patronage and protection to its citizens, both on its territory and abroad.
To update the Constitution, a broad public discussion was held, more than 117.3 thousand proposals were received from citizens and organizations on the draft law on amendments. It is noteworthy that Uzbekistan people living abroad did not remain indifferent to this process. In particular, hundreds of proposals and appeals have been received from our compatriots from other countries.
Among the proposals received from our citizens, the most relevant are those that noted the need for taxation to comply with the principles of justice, protection of labor rights by the state, openness of the activities of state bodies and entrusting them with the task of combating corruption, making youth issues one of the most important tasks of state policy, non-interference in the activities of the media and journalists, the administration of justice only by the courts. At the same time, some norms that caused objections were excluded from the text. This, in turn, indicates that the draft law is adopted based on the proposals of the population, and the Basic Law becomes the people’s Constitution.
When preparing the draft Constitution, its authors relied on three main sources: the centuries-old national legal heritage, international human rights standards, foreign constitutional experience.
The proposed version of the Constitution guarantees the right of every person to inviolability, personal and family secrets, protection of their honor and dignity.
The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis announced the draft law “On introducing amendments and addenda to the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.
The project proposes to make more than 200 amendments to 64 articles of the basic law and add 6 new articles (basic articles) containing 16 norms.
We are convinced that the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan is the cornerstone of the entire legal system and the basis of ongoing large-scale reforms in the name of the well-being and prosperity of our people, the tranquility and stability of our Motherland.
Thus, Constitution Day should become one of the most important holidays of a national-state nature and scale.
Expert of the Constitutional Court of the
Republic of Uzbekistan Yuldashbekova Umida
