Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and democratic reforms

There are momentous dates in the history of independent Uzbekistan, which serve as an important social-political event in the life of an entire nation. The day of adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan – December 8, 1992 – is one of such historical dates.
This landmark date occupies a deserved place in a row of other nationwide holidays and allows once again comprehend the enormous role and significance of the Constitution in ensuring the rights and freedoms of human, and realize its influence upon the fate of an each citizen, each family, as well as today’s life of the country.
Ultimate political significance of the Constitution is in the fact that at the level of the Main Law it has confirmed the emergence of the sovereign state – the Republic of Uzbekistan. This has been reflected in the Article 1 of the Constitution.
Such qualities, which pertain to Uzbek people as tolerance, generosity, and respect to universal values were reflected in the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan. An important role in the document is reserved to the traditions of brotherhood and friendship, principles of mutual accord and good-neighborliness.
The large-scale reforms are under way in the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of the Constitution. The state as a head reformer has set forward the main objectives related to the transformations in society. All conditions have been created for both economic and social relations.
The most important peculiarity of the Constitution is the fact that it reserves a special regard for the human, establishing real conditions for his free development. The Constitution guarantees personal, political, economic and social rights and freedoms of citizens needed to build a democratic legal state and fair civil society in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The system of state power in the Republic of Uzbekistan is based upon the principle of separation of power into legislative, executive and judicial. This is one of the main provisions of the Constitution. And this is the basis of a consistent, profound and large-scale reform gradually undertaken during the years of independence.
The recent initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov on introducing the draft Constitutional Law “On strengthening the role of political parties in the renewal and further democratization of state governance and modernization of the country” and “On introducing amendments to particular articles (Art.89; Clause 15 of Article 93; P.2 of Article 102) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan” to the Legislative Chamber of the national parliament became an important step along the path of further improving the state and political system of the country.
Adoption of the given Constitutional Law will create the organizational - legal conditions for the active participation of political parties and movements in formation of bodies of representative and executive branches of power, as well as establish the legal mechanisms that provide the accountability of governmental structures, bodies of the state power both in the center and in local places before the political parties represented at the parliament of the country, the party groups in local representative bodies.
Amendments to the Constitution are introduced with a view of further democratizing the public administration, increasing the role and responsibility of legislative and executive branches of power, government and state bodies on a local level for implementation of powers laid with them by the Constitution and, mainly, pursue the goals of strengthening the influence of political parties on a political and economic life and processes of renewal of the country.
The main objective of the reform of the judicial - legal system in Uzbekistan is to maintain an efficient protection of constitutional rights and freedoms of the person, and above all, the right to life, protection against unjustified criminal prosecution and interference into one’s private life, personal inviolability, as well as the right to a fair trial.
For over the last years the considerable work has been accomplished in the country on liberalization of criminal legislation, maintenance of legality in the activity of law enforcement bodies, strengthening the authority of judicial power as the most important guarantee of effective protection of human rights, maintenance of true independence of courts, strengthening their role in construction of a democratic legal state, a strong civil society.
The specialization of courts on criminal, civil and economic affairs has been carried out in the country. This has provided for the improvement of quality of handling the legal cases and strengthened the guarantees of protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens.
One of the main directions of reforming the judicial - legal system of the republic is consistent liberalization of criminal legislation that regulates the system of criminal punishment, and especially, the application of capital punishment.
During the years of independence the spheres of application of death penalty saw a gradual decrease in the country. In 1991 – by the time of gaining independence the criminal legislation contained more than 30 articles, which would envisage the punishment as a death penalty. In the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan the number of these articles has been decreased down to 13 in 1994, in 1998 – down to 8, and in 2001 – down to 4. At the moment, following the realization of complex of measures on liberalization the criminal legislation in 2003, the death penalty is envisaged only for committing two crimes - the premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances and terrorism.
The policy of the state with regard to application of death penalty fully corresponds to the global tendency and consistently reflects the principles of humanism and justice proclaimed by the Constitution.
Proceeding from the universal principles and norms of international law, provisions of the Constitution, which proclaim and consolidate the right of human to life, as well as with an aim to implement the concrete measures on further liberalizing the criminal punishment in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan starting January 1, 2008 the death penalty as a type of criminal punishment shall be abolished in the republic and instead of this the punishment as life imprisonment or long term imprisonment shall be introduced.
Another most important direction of liberalization of judicial-legal system is expansion of powers of courts to ensure the effective protection of citizen rights at a pre-trial investigation stage and, first of all, transfer to courts from prosecutor’s office the right to issue sanctions for arrest. In line with another Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the courts shall be empowered to issue the sanctions for detention of persons, suspected or charged with committing the crimes. The said measure will allow considerably increase the efficiency of protection of constitutional rights of citizens to freedom and personal inviolability.
Thus, the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan guarantees and protects the rights and freedoms of a person, provides for the economic, political and social development of the country, democratic transformations, stability in society, creates all conditions to maintain peace and security, promotes the creative work of people of Uzbekistan, and is the main legislative basis of reforming and modernizing the country.