MAIN DIRECTIONS OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTARISM IN NEW UZBEKISTAN

In recent years, Uzbekistan has been rapidly getting onto a new stage of development. The democratic image of the country is changing. Economic, political, social reforms and transformations are taking place.
The main thing is that in our country the basic fundamental rights and freedoms of each person have become truly ensured. In particular, respect for human rights, ensuring the inviolability of private property, and guaranteeing freedom of speech are universal values that shape the content of the activities of state bodies.
The most important thing is that such principles and concepts as "human dignity", "man - society - state", "state - for man", "enhancement of human dignity", put forward by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, deeply penetrate our real life. We are all witnesses of the fact that in Uzbekistan, regardless of the sphere or industry, the goal of the large-scale reforms being implemented is to glorify human dignity, to find solutions to the problems that concern our people.
The principle of "Uzbekistan is a state based on the rule of law" was enshrined in the new version of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan. This demonstrates the importance and significance of ensuring the acceptability, improvement, nationality and effectiveness of legislation.
It should be noted that lawmaking consists of a complex set of methods and tools (means). It covers the entire process from identifying the need for it in society to the adoption of a legislative act and its implementation.
In order to fully legally support the intensive reforms being implemented today, the process of implementing lawmaking activities is also being improved. Because the successful implementation of reforms largely depends on the quality of the lawmaking process.
Considering that at the new stage of Uzbekistan’s development there are very urgent tasks in the field of rulemaking, much attention is paid to further improving the quality of the work of the lower house in the field of lawmaking.
A number of new democratic procedures were introduced based on the priority principle that "the only source and author of the law should be the people." The procedure for public discussion of draft laws in the lower house of parliament has been established. Particular attention is paid to the adoption of laws of direct action, that is, those that do not require the development of additional acts for their implementation.
At the same time, a revision of the entire legal framework of the legislative process of a separate sphere is carried out and a number of comprehensive laws are adopted. This serves to ensure the systematization and comprehensiveness of the legislative framework.
The Legislative Chamber is turning into a real "school of democracy", a platform for impartial debates and discussions on each bill. Along with representatives of project initiators, ministries and departments, industry experts, specialists and scientists actively participate in the discussion of draft laws; all opportunities are created for them to express their opinions.
Today, both the scale of legislative activity and the volume of work of the Legislative Chamber are synchronized with the reforms carried out in our country. For example, in 2016, 19 laws were adopted and sent to the Senate, and in 2023 this number became 99, which confirms our words.
A practice is developing of discussing bills mainly in factions of political parties and committees of the Legislative Chamber. This practice is of great importance when finalizing bills with the participation of representatives of subjects of legislative initiative, industry specialists, experts and scientists, in particular, this allows for an even more complete expression of the interests of voters in the adopted legal acts, and also serves to ensure the effective implementation of these laws.

The effectiveness of
parliamentary control is ensured

Based on the direct initiatives and ideas of the Head of our state, special attention is paid to the radical improvement of the control and analytical activities of the parliament. Its legal framework is being strengthened. New forms of parliamentary control are being introduced.
In particular, the "Government Hour" institute has been introduced in the Legislative Chamber work, within the framework of which the answers of government members to questions from deputies are heard. Since 2019, the practice of considering candidates for membership in the Cabinet of Ministers at a meeting of the lower house has been introduced. The State Budget Department, created in the lower house, serves to establish effective control over the formation and execution of the budget.
At the same time, it would not be an exaggeration to say that based on the new version of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the control activities of the parliament have moved to a completely new qualitative level.
Analysis shows that most of the innovations introduced into the updated Constitution and related to parliamentary activities are aimed at strengthening the control activities of the lower house of parliament.
For example, in order to eliminate parallelism and duplication, the joint powers of the Legislative Chamber and the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, including those related to the performance of oversight functions, were revised.
It should be recognized that parallelism in the implementation of control activities of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis negatively affected the efficiency of state bodies and reduced the effectiveness of parliamentary control measures. For example, it has been established that requests are repeatedly sent to the same department and hearings of their heads are repeatedly held on them (in 2020, 4 requests were sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and 6 hearings of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were held). There are cases of repeated studies on the same issues in the same regions (in the Andijan region in 2021, the chambers conducted 8 studies, during this period, 1-2 studies were conducted in other regions).
Another important point, enshrining in the Constitution as a joint power of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis is the determination of the maximum amount of the public debt of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Previously, these powers were not defined at the Constitutional level; they were regulated by legislative norms. For example, the powers of the Oliy Majlis to determine the maximum amount of public debt are enshrined in the Budget Code (Article 152), in the Law "On External Borrowing" (Article 4). Based on this, the determination of the maximum amount of public debt was included in the scope of general powers of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis. In addition, in order to strengthen the role of Parliament in the fight against corruption, it was decided to consider the National Report on the Fight against Corruption in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Also, in order to increase the effectiveness of parliamentary investigation, ensure the involvement and participation of both chambers of parliament in this investigation, it was envisaged that parliamentary investigations will be carried out only with the consent of both chambers.
Such reforms of parliamentary activity, especially the introduction of such forms of accountability, fundamentally increase the openness and responsibility of the government. Issues raised by the local population are brought to the attention of the government.

People’s representatives have become real exponents of the will of the people

One of the most important areas of activity of the deputy corps is expanding ties with voters, identifying the problems of the population and solving them through the effective use of forms of parliamentary control.
The initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sh. Mirziyoyev to improve the mechanisms for establishing strong ties between deputies and voters give the parliament the opportunity to deeply study the problems of concern to the population, to be a bridge between the people and state institutions and fully express the interests of voters.
In the time since the start of breakthrough reforms, the priority in the activities of people’s representatives has become the principle according to which it is not voters who should go to their elected representatives, but deputies who should go to their voters, and continuous dialogue with the population has risen to a new qualitative level.
Previously, deputies traveled to meet with voters three or four times a year, but now the last week of each month is allocated for deputies to work in their constituencies. Being an important area of comprehensive and complete satisfaction (expression) of voters’ interests, this mechanism has formed a stable order that ensures that deputies receive information "first-hand" about the needs, problems and real state of affairs at the local level directly from their voters.
People’s deputies not only study the problems and shortcomings reported by citizens, but also pay special attention to studying the interests of the population and public opinion on important issues of public life that require their solution.
Deputies in their constituencies have established permanent communication with the territorial People’s Reception Offices of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. During the visiting activities of deputies in their constituencies, joint receptions of citizens are organized in cooperation with the People’s Reception Offices. Thus, during 2023, more than 12.5 thousand citizens were received. In addition, public discussions of some bills under consideration in the Legislative Chamber were organized at the local level, following the discussion, opinions and proposals received from the population were received and considered. These opinions and proposals were used to improve the bills. In total, in 2023, deputies visited 5,336 households and held 4,191 meetings in constituencies. Direct meetings and dialogues were organized with more than 104.8 thousand citizens, including more than 9.5 thousand entrepreneurs, deputies got acquainted with the activities of 2,527 social facilities.
Such activities of deputies at the local level allow timely identification and elimination of problems and shortcomings arising in society that concern voters and the population. In addition, during their activities in the districts, the deputies of the Legislative Chamber provide ongoing practical support for the effective functioning of local Kengashes of People’s Deputies, the work of their standing committees, party groups and secretariats created under the Kengashes. This, in turn, is of great importance for the further development of mutual cooperation between the chambers of the Oliy Majlis and local Kengashes, and their full performance of the functions of representative bodies.
Strengthening international relations and developing inter-parliamentary cooperation is one of the important areas of activity of the Legislative Chamber.
Uzbekistan effectively cooperates with the most influential international parliamentary organizations of the world - the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Currently, there are 58 inter-parliamentary cooperation groups in the Oliy Majlis that interact with foreign parliaments. These inter-parliamentary cooperation groups serve as a permanent dialogue platform for the further development of relations with the legislative bodies of foreign countries and, in turn, become a convenient mechanism for conducting an open, constructive and lively dialogue with representatives of foreign parliaments.
In a word, the development of the main directions of national parliamentarism in New Uzbekistan is in harmony with the hopes and dreams of the noble multinational people of our country.
The activities of the Oliy Majlis as an important and independent institution play an important role in ensuring the stable development of our country, the formation of a truly legal state, and the creation of a constructive and creative environment in our state.

Valisher Davlyatov,
Deputy Director of the Parliamentary Research Institute under the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan