The Senate passed a new version of the Protection of State Secrets law at its October 23 session. Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defense and Security Tolibjon Madumarov underscored that the current law was adopted in 1993, so there was a "need to improve the legal framework for regulating relations in this area."
According to him, the current version of the law fails to define the powers of bodies in the field of protecting state secrets, the degree of confidentiality, the period of classification of information and the issuance of permission to use state secrets. Because of this, the legal basis for the use and work with state secrets is interpreted differently.
Meanwhile, the procedure for working with state secrets and their protection, ensuring the secrecy regime and regulating work in a secret regime are approved on the basis of secret resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers.
This leads to the fact that citizens of Uzbekistan, foreigners and stateless persons do not know at the proper level about the rights to use state secrets, the senator said.
Madumarov pointed out that the current law also failed to regulate the procedure for issuing permission to familiarize oneself with state secrets, the list of information that is not subject to classification, or the mechanism for the mutual exchange of state secrets with other countries.
To eliminate these loopholes in the legislation, according to him, the State Security Service has developed a new version of the Protection of State Secrets law.
The document has proposed that the uniform state policy in the field of state secrets is determined by the president, and also specifically defines the powers in the area of the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Security Service and other organizations that use state secrets. According to the current law, only the State Security Service has powers.
A limited list of four categories of information that are subject to classification as a secret of state significance has been approved:
- military area;
- foreign policy and foreign economic areas;
- information in the field of intelligence and counterintelligence, operational-search activities and other areas of state security;
- information from the economic, educational, scientific and technical areas.
Currently, this list has been classified in the government resolution of 1994, the senator underscored.
Tolibjon Madumarov stated that the new law defines the grounds for issuing clearance to state secrets by citizens, foreign citizens and stateless persons, a separate procedure for issuing clearance and grounds for refusing to issue a permit.
Clearance to state secrets is issued to persons who have reached the age of 18, and for stateless persons of Uzbekistan - subject to compliance with international treaties and the requirements of the legislation of Uzbekistan.
While, it is planned to conduct training courses for employees of government agencies and other organizations to improve their knowledge and skills in this area. The procedure for traveling abroad after the termination of the right to access state secrets, classification and declassification of state secrets is also approved.
Today, state secrets are divided into state, military and official secrets:
A state secret is information, the disclosure of which may have a negative impact on the qualitative state of the military-economic potential of the country or entail other serious consequences for the defense capability, state security, economic and political interests of Uzbekistan;
A military secret is information of a military nature, the disclosure of which may entail serious consequences for the defense capability, state security and the armed forces of Uzbekistan;
An official secret is information in the field of science, technology, production and management, the disclosure of which may harm the interests of Uzbekistan.
Senators approved this law without discussion or questions.
