Bill on rallies is being reviewed by the Administration of the President of Uzbekistan, said at a press conference on March 28 by the head of the department of legislation of the Ministry of Justice Mirzhalol Allakuliyev.
The Bill on rallies and mass demonstrations has been drafted. It was agreed with the relevant ministries and departments. Recently, there was a [discussion] on this topic… On the recommendation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the draft is under reviewe by the Presidential Administration, he said.
Mirzhalol Allakuliyev also answered the question of how fairly the blogger Olimjon Khaydarov was punished, who was fined 21 million soums by the court for violating the procedure for organizing and holding rallies, if there is no such law.
He said that the court based its ruling on three documents, but did not name them.
It should be noted that despite the existence of liability in the Code of Administrative Liability for “violating the procedure for organizing meetings, rallies, street walks or demonstrations,” this procedure has not yet been spelled out in the legislation. This was recognized in 2021 by Ruslanbek Davletov, who then was in charge of the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs published the Rallies, meetings and demonstrations Bill for discussion in June 2019, and then again in August 2020. However after two discussions, the bill was not submitted to the parliament. While, the ministry noted that the main purpose of the bill on rallies was "the realization of the constitutional rights of citizens", calling the absence of a law a legal gap.
According to the Constitution, “citizens have the right to carry out their public activity in the form of rallies, meetings and demonstrations in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The authorities have the right to suspend or prohibit these events only for justified security reasons.”
