The Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (UzLiDeP) and the Milliy Tiklanish Democratic Party will hold a joint meeting in the Legislative Chamber to discuss the launch of the process of amending and supplementing the Constitution. The issue was discussed at the meetings of the parties on Monday.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev pointed to the need for constitutional reforms in his inaugural speech after being re-elected last November. “In many countries, constitutional reforms were carried out during the period of major changes,” the president said, without specifying exactly what changes to the Basic Law are proposed. While, he stressed that the decision should be made after consultations with parliament and the general public.
A month later, in a speech on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Constitution, the president noted that the amendments to the Constitution could be adopted by the 30th anniversary of the Constitution, that is, by December 2022. Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to enshrine in the Constitution the principle “New Uzbekistan is a social state”, to replace the principle “state-society-person” with “person-society-state”, to define the main criterion of reforms to ensure the interests of the person, to consolidate the foundations for the development of the family and to reflect environmental issues into it.
UzLiDeP in its report noted that the current Constitution "had become a solid legal foundation and the main guarantee of all the successes we have achieved." However, “large-scale tasks within the framework of the New Uzbekistan’s development strategy, in particular, such important goals as building a just and people-to-people state, more effectively ensuring the rights and interests of a person and his dignity, put on the agenda the need to further improve the constitutional space that provides the necessary legal basis for their implementation.
Based on the "consonance of the promoted initiative ... with the goals, objectives and election programs of another leading faction in the Legislative Chamber - the Milliy Tiklanish Democratic Party", it was decided to consider the issue of amendments to the Constitution at a joint meeting of the two parties, the report says.
“Milliy Tiklanish” emphasized in its message: “The large-scale reforms currently being carried out in our republic, the process of transition from the Action Strategy to the Development Strategy, in a word, the construction of New Uzbekistan, require the improvement of the Basic Law of the country.”
“The implementation of such an important task on the basis of consultation with society as part of an in-depth study of the best world practices is our duty not only to the current generation, but also to the future,” the message says.
The parties did not elaborate on the specific details of the proposed changes. The draft amendments have not yet been published.
According to Article 127 of the Constitution, amendments to it 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, respectively, or by a referendum.
