On July 5, the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations Bill into Law.

According to official sources, the Law aims to strengthen guarantees of freedom of conscience, to strengthen legal mechanisms to ensure the right of every person to profess any religion or not to profess any religion, as well as to improve the national policies on religious affairs.

Since the publication of the draft (in August 2020), more than 700 proposals have been received from international organizations and local experts. The draft was widely discussed in factions of committees and parties. The MPs excluded from the bill one of the problems that had complicated the life of believers - namely the ban to wear prayer robes in public places.

In addition, the requirement for teachers in religious educational institutions to obtain the authorization of the central body, the procedure for approving notarized documents for registration of a religious organization, and the requirement to obtain the consent of makhalla citizens' gatherings to create a religious organization have been scrapped.

Also, the procedure for registering religious organizations is simplified, namely:

• the number of citizens who initiate the creation of a religious organization has been cut from 100 to 50;
• the timeframe to apply to the justice body is now within 6 months after the founding meeting of a religious organization (it was 3 months);
• the number of documents to be provided has been cut;
• registration now will be completely in electronic form;
• the 3-month delay for consideration of documents submitted for registration of a religious organization has been reduced to 1 month;
• the grounds for refusal to register are clearly established.

However, the new law has kept restrictions on private religious education. This caused discontent among active members of the public and religious leaders.

Also, many international organizations have declared the need for a serious revision of this law in order to fully comply with international human rights standards and Uzbekistan's human rights obligations to the OSCE.

The bill was passed this year by the deputies of the Legislative Chamber on May 4, and on June 26 - by the Senate.

The Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations Law officially takes effect from today.