President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Monday at a meeting with members of the constitutional commission on the formation of proposals for amendments to the Basic Law, has proposed to adopt amendments to the Constitution through a democratic referendum.
At the beginning of the meeting, Shavkat Mirziyoyev answered questions about why a constitutional reform is needed right now and what it will give to an ordinary person.
Answering the first question, the president, “as a member of the commission who participated in the adoption of our current Basic Law,” agreed that the Constitution of Uzbekistan fully meets the best foreign experience and international standards and requirements. “There is no doubt about that.”
“The Constitution of Uzbekistan remains a solid foundation for all our achievements over the years of independence,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
At the same time, “the current challenging time, the difficult situation around us requires that we treat the fate of our Motherland with even greater responsibility and make urgent strategic decisions.”
The President stressed that the worldview of the people of Uzbekistan has changed a lot in the six years since the change of the country’s leadership.
“Humanity has entered the scientific and technological stage. Radical transformation processes and competition are intensifying in the world. The peoples and states that think about tomorrow are seriously thinking about their future today as never before,” he said.
The head of state asked questions: “What is the place and value of a person in our state and society at such a decisive time and in the future? What political, legal, economic, social, spiritual and humanitarian principles, values and interests will be a priority for us? And most importantly – what will the constitutional reforms give to the ordinary population, the well-being of our people, the development of our society and state?”
The answers to these questions should be reflected in the Constitution through carefully developed legal norms, this is the requirement of the time, Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized.
“The updated Constitution should create a solid legal basis and a reliable guarantee of long-term development strategies for our country, a prosperous tomorrow for our people as a whole,” he said.
The first direction of reforms of the Constitution is “a person, his life, freedoms, honor and dignity, inviolable rights and interests.”
The President stated that the idea “In the name of human dignity” and the main principle of the current stage of development “Man – Society – States” should be deeply integrated into the essence of the Constitution and become the main value in practice.
“From now on, the honor and dignity of a person should be in the first place in all areas,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
“Society and the state develop steadily in harmony only when a person receives upbringing and education in decent conditions, lives a prosperous life … A person is not a means to achieve a goal for the state and society, on the contrary, the main essence and source of this goal and the highest value,” he declared.
“In the New Uzbekistan we are creating, human dignity and human interests are above all! Therefore, the promotion of human dignity should in fact be a constitutional duty and a priority task of state authorities,” the President said.
“Of course, we do not have the opportunity to discuss in detail with you today all the important and relevant proposals that our people submitted to the commission. I have touched on only a few of them. At the suggestion of the commission, I propose to consider the draft developed by the parliament at a nationwide discussion and adopt it through a referendum,” the head of state said.
The President noted that under the current legislation, the Parliament itself has the right to amend the Constitution. According to Article 127 of the Basic Law, amendments to the Constitution are made by a law adopted by a majority of at least two thirds of the total number of deputies of the Legislative Chamber and members of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, respectively, or by a referendum.
“However, I think that if we carry out a constitutional reform through a referendum, relying on the opinion and support of our citizens, then this will be the will of our people – a real people’s Constitution,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
According to him, this is consistent with the principle that “the only source and author of the Constitution is the people.”
“Then each of our compatriots will be able to proudly say: “The new Constitution of Uzbekistan is our Constitution,” he said.
Some powers of the President of Uzbekistan should be transferred to the Oliy Majlis (Parliament).
“We need to establish in our Constitution the rules for the formation of the government and the expansion of the powers of the Oliy Majlis in ensuring its effective functioning.
I propose to introduce a procedure for the approval of the decree on the appointment of the head of the Anti-Corruption Agency by the Senate.
“The issue of discussing the annual national report on the fight against corruption, prepared by the government, should be included in the competence of our parliament,” the President said.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev also stressed the need to continue working to strengthen the constitutional basis of the powers of the Oliy Majlis to exercise parliamentary control.
“To this end, I propose to transfer some of the powers of the President to the Oliy Majlis. For example, it would be expedient to transfer to the Senate the power to appoint and dismiss the chairman of the Chamber of Accounts. In this way, the Chamber of Accounts will become an important tool of parliamentary control over the formation and execution of the state budget,” he added.
“Most of us are well aware that there are golden rules in the law of ancient Rome. These include, for example, such as “No one is obligated to do the impossible”. Unfortunately, in our national legislation there are also regulations, the implementation of which is impossible or difficult. In fact, laws should never put impossible demands on a person,” the President said.
According to him, ” impossible demands, first of all, mean excessive spending, and this also leads to corruption.”
The President gave an example of a citizen who has a three-month debt worth of 3 million soums, or USD 300 on a mortgage loan. Under current law, the bank sues the debtor. However, in this case, the claim is made not for the real debt of 3 million soums, but for the outstanding part of the loan, for example, for 250 million soums.
“After considering the claim, the court decides to collect more than 10 million soums of state duty from the debtor and terminate the contract. Think for yourself, how can a citizen who cannot pay 3 million soums will pay 10 million in state duties? I propose to introduce a new rule into the constitution in order to prevent such illogical cases,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The head of state believes that “measures of legal influence applied to a person when considering cases in the administrative, civil, economic, criminal and other areas must be sufficient to achieve a legitimate goal and create the maximum possible relief for a person.”
The President recalled that checkpoints on the roads and the so-called “propiska”, which infringed on the rights of citizens, had previously been eliminated in Uzbekistan.
“In the future, in order to systematically eliminate such barriers, every citizen of Uzbekistan should have the right to freedom of movement, residence or choice of place of residence throughout the country. Every citizen must be guaranteed the right to freely leave the country and return to it,” he stressed.