The Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan held a conference on the theme “Participation of civil society in law-making”, organized by the Committee for Democratic Institutions, NGOs and Civil Society.
The conference was attended by members of factions of political parties in the lower chamber of the parliament, representatives of civil society organizations, government agencies, experts of committee and the mass media.
The conference noted that a joint session of the Legislative Chamber and Senate of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan on January 23, 2015 one of the most important tasks has been determined to ensure a broad involvement of the public, the representatives of civil society institutions to discuss draft laws, especially those legislative acts and decisions that directly impacts on the vital important interests, the social rights of the population. In the conference reviewed the legal bases of participation of civil institutions in the development of normative legal acts, analyzed national and international experience in this field. In particular, adopted such laws as “On normative legal acts”, “On the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Uzbekistan”, “On trade unions, rights and guarantees of their activities”, “On Protection of Consumer Rights” and others.
The implementation of the Concept of further deepening democratic reforms and formation of civil society in the country has given a powerful impetus to further work on creating the conditions for a broad involvement of civil society institutions in the process of improvement of the legislative process, large-scale public discussion of draft legislative acts, the implementation of public control over public authorities activities and management by their execution.
Thus, the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, a number of other civil society organizations have actively participated in the working out of the Law “On environmental control”. Fund “Mahalla” has made a significant contribution to the work out of the Law “On self-management bodies” in the new edition.
The Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan, the Independent Institute for monitoring the formation of civil society, the National Association of NGOs of Uzbekistan and several other NGOs of the country participated in the working out of laws “On openness of activities of state authorities and management”, “On social partnership”.
According to the results of study of the Independent Institute for monitoring the formation of civil society, conducted in May-June 2015, the last four years, 72 percent of those surveyed NGOs have been involved in the development and public discussions of regulatory legal acts. In 2014, the NGO carried out a public discussion 85 draft legal acts submitted 1320 proposals for their improvement.
Conference participants developed proposals and recommendations aimed at improving the existing legislatives regulations which controls forms, methods and mechanisms for participation of civil society institution in law-making processes as well as in strengthening their interaction with public authorities.
