The history of the creation of our Constitution

(Ten Legal Steps to the Encyclopedia of Independence)

Before talking about the history of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, "What is the Constitution?" It is expedient to answer the question.

Constitution (Latin "Constitution" - structure, order) - the Basic Law of the state. It determines the structure of the state, the system of government and administration, their powers and order of formation, the electoral system, the rights and freedoms of citizens, the relationship between society and the individual, as well as the judiciary and the relationship between state and society.

The term "constitution" was known in ancient Rome (the law known as the imperial constitution). Amir Temur's "Regulations" had the character of a special form of constitutional document typical of the civilizations of the East and Asia. He had a strong influence on the fate of the peoples of the Central Asian region, along with Sharia law.

Looking at the complex and important, but at the same time honorable chronicle of the creation of our Basic Law, we are convinced that the Constitution of Uzbekistan is the result of our people's long-term pursuit of independence.

First of all, the construction of the constitutional "building" is based on three thousand years of experience of national statehood. Today's Uzbekistan embodies the ancient Khorezm and Sogdiana, the Karakhanids, Khorezmshahs, Amir Temur and Temurids, the Uzbek khanates, our enlightened ancestors, the historical traditions of our people and its centuries-old dream of an independent state.

In addition, based on our interests and aspirations, our Basic Law has been created taking into account the advanced constitutional experience accumulated by 97 countries of the East and the West, the South and the North.

In this regard, the 10 most important historical events in the preparation, discussion, adoption and implementation of the first Constitution of Sovereign Uzbekistan should be listed as the most important historical events in this regard. After all, the history of the creation of the Constitution is an integral part of the struggle for independence.

The first legal step towards the creation of a constitution is to give Uzbek the status of the state language.

In this regard, first of all, on October 1989, 21, after a heated debate and controversy, an unforgettable event took place in our political and spiritual life - the status of our native language as one of the main pillars of our national values. It is worth noting that it forms one of the pages.

"It is rightly said that a person who does not know his mother tongue does not know his family tree, his roots, he has no future, he does not know his language, he does not know his language." "Every nation, big or small, respects its mother tongue."

In the works of the First President "Uzbekistan on the threshold of independence", "High spirituality is an invincible force" on the eve of independence there was a heated, sometimes sharp and uncompromising debate on the issue of giving the Uzbek language the status of the state language. it is not in vain that it is mentioned separately.

In such a precarious and complicated situation, as Islam Karimov rightly noted: “acting responsibly, thinking in all directions, meeting the needs of all political and social groups, and most importantly, responding to the interests of our people and homeland We have found the only right way. ”

Thus, first of all, the important legal provisions enshrined in the Law "On the State Language" are now sealed in Article 4 of our Basic Law as follows:

“The state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan is Uzbek. The Republic of Uzbekistan shall ensure respect for the languages, customs and traditions of all nations and peoples living on its territory, and create conditions for their development. ”

The second legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the establishment of the Presidential Institute and the formation of a commission to prepare new state symbols.

It should be noted that these very important and exciting events in the life of our country took place in March 1990. At that time, shortly before the declaration of our independence, at the first session of the Supreme Soviet of the twelfth convocation, the post of President was introduced in the former Soviet republic, the issue of state symbols was discussed and a special commission was set up. The idea of ​​creating the first Constitution of independent Uzbekistan was first put forward at this session.

The third legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the promulgation of the "Declaration of Independence."

Paragraph 1990 of the Declaration of Independence, issued by the Supreme Soviet of Uzbekistan on June 20, 8, states that Uzbekistan “shall determine its own path of development, its name and state symbols (coat of arms, flag, anthem). The principle of "self-establishment" is strengthened.

Paragraph 12 of the declaration states that this document will be "the basis for the development of a new Constitution of the republic."

At that time, such a document was the first in Uzbekistan on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

The fourth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the establishment of the Constitutional Commission.

On June 1990, 21, the Supreme Council established a Constitutional Commission chaired by the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. It consisted of 64 members, including statesmen, deputies and specialists. .

With the launch of the Constitutional Commission, the First President directly led the preparation of the draft Constitution, which adequately reflects the specifics and features of our country, fully meets international standards, takes into account world experience, democracy and the achievements of constitutional law of the most developed countries.

In carrying out these tasks, our First President has emerged as a great statesman and public figure, a talented political leader. In this sense, the initiator, inspiration and main author of the Constitution of Uzbekistan is the President of the country.

Therefore, destiny Islam Karimov is responsible for the renewal of society, the solution of mature problems of socio-economic, political, state-legal and spiritual-enlightenment development of our country in the difficult conditions of transition, including the creation of the Constitution of the future independent state. was loaded with historical tasks such as.

The fifth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is closely connected with the visit of our First President to India in 1991.

It should be noted that the official visit of the First President Islam Karimov to the Republic of India on August 1991-17, 19 was the first independent-historical visit of the President of Uzbekistan abroad. During the President's visit to India, on August 19, a group of political adventurers calling themselves the State Emergency Committee, or GKChP, issued a statement calling for a coup d'etat.

Unfortunately, taking advantage of the visit of the leader of Uzbekistan, there are leaders in our country who support the illegal decisions of the GKChP. History remembers this well.

The continuation of these events is described in the foreword to the book "Uzbekistan on the threshold of independence":

“President Islam Karimov will return to Tashkent immediately on 19 August when he hears in Agra that the GKChP has been announced. In addition to officials, the head of state will be met at the Tashkent airport by the Commander-in-Chief of the Turkestan Military District and three generals from the Center.

This was in stark contrast to the existing official protocol rules of the time, and had a radical political meaning.

Islam Karimov arrived straight from the airport to the government building, met with members of the government in the evening and instructed them to repeal the illegal decisions of the GKChP in the territory of the Uzbek SSR. Thus, the GKChP deputies canceled all the documents received on behalf of the Uzbek government.

The purpose of remembering and recalling these events of the recent past is to recognize that the struggle for the creation of our new Constitution is an integral part of the struggle for independence. After all, we have gone through the same difficult tests on the way to the creation of the first Constitution of Uzbekistan, just as we have achieved our independence with difficulties, trials and tribulations.

In short, despite the difficult conditions, political, economic and social difficulties and various obstacles that arose on the eve of independence, under the leadership of the First President Islam Karimov, our people have achieved their age-old dream - the state sovereignty and independence of Uzbekistan. He continued to work diligently.

The important rights and rules reflected in the decrees and resolutions of the President adopted during that turbulent period were later strengthened as the main sections, chapters and articles of our Constitution.

The sixth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the declaration of state independence.

The speech of the head of our state on August 1991, 31, at the sixth extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Uzbekistan of the twelfth convocation, in particular, reads: “I declare September 1 in our country as Independence Day, a national holiday. I propose to publish it, ”he said.

17 years later, the first President of our country in his book "High spirituality - an invincible force" wrote about this exciting event: "The national independence achieved on August 1991, 31 - a great achievement of our people in the twentieth century. "If we say that he is an example of courage, we will tell the truth," he said.

On the same day, the Supreme Council adopted the Declaration of State Independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The statement said, "From now on, the Constitution and laws of the Republic will undoubtedly prevail in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan."

On the same day, the constitutional law "On the foundations of state independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan" was adopted. It contains a number of important articles that reflect the core provisions of the future Constitution. In particular, in accordance with this Law:

"The Republic of Uzbekistan has full state power, independently determines its national-state and administrative-territorial structure, the system of government and administration" (Article 3);

“The Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and its laws prevail in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The system of state bodies of the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be built on the basis of the procedure for separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial branches ”(Article 5).

This Constitutional Law served as a minor Constitution for us until the adoption of our Basic Law, that is, until December 1992, 8.

The seventh legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the December 1991, 29 presidential election and the referendum on state independence.

The election of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the referendum on the state independence of the Republic were held on December 1991, 29. The people voted in favor of state independence and elected the President. On January 1992, 4, the ninth session of the Supreme Council dedicated to the results of these elections and referendums opened.

Then Islam Karimov took office as President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. At this session, amendments and additions were made to the Constitution of Uzbekistan in force at that time. A law on the reorganization of local authorities was adopted.

The eighth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the publication of the first draft Constitution for public discussion in the press for the first time.

The Constitutional Commission approved the work done and on September 1992, 8 decided to publish the draft Constitution for public discussion. At this meeting, a working group was formed to finalize and edit the project. The first draft of the new Constitution was prepared on September 1992, 26 and published in the press on the same day.

When the project was announced, its public discussion became very wide. These open discussions took place from the end of September 1992 to the beginning of December XNUMX in the spirit of political activism, creative uplift of citizens and became an effective and practical school for the development of democracy in Uzbekistan.

Almost all the adult population of our country took part in the discussion. There was a heated debate in the press, on radio and television. Many meetings were held, talks and conferences were organized on issues related to the draft Constitution.

The Constitutional Commission received about 600 letters with comments. More than a hundred materials on the draft Constitution were published in the national press. The number of proposals submitted by our citizens exceeded 5.

The ninth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the second publication of the draft Constitution in the press for public discussion.

The draft constitution has been significantly amended and revised on the basis of proposals received during the discussions. Then, on November 1992, 21, the draft Constitution was published in newspapers for the second time to continue the public discussion.

Thus, there was a legal precedent - a two-stage public debate. This situation, on the one hand, served as a powerful incentive to activate the participants in the discussion, and on the other hand, ensured the popularization of our Basic Law. The draft constitution itself has undergone extensive public scrutiny.

The meaning of this action, that is, the publication of the draft Constitution in the press for discussion in two stages, was that citizens could see the results of their participation in the discussion of the draft Constitution in the revised version of the Constitution.

The new version of the draft Constitution reflects many of the views and suggestions received at the initial stage of public discussion. Our citizens were assured that their voices were heard by the Constitutional Commission, and their proposals were duly considered and taken into account.

The tenth legal step towards the creation of the Constitution is the adoption of the draft Constitution.

The last discussion of the draft Constitution was on December 1992, 6 by the Constitutional Commission. It should be noted that the Constitutional Commission, referring to foreign constitutional experience, came from a holistic understanding of the role of the Basic Law.

It took into account a number of advanced aspects of the world constitutional practice. The draft constitution has been carefully examined by leading international organizations such as the United Nations, the Security and Cooperation Council in Europe, and experts from democracies such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France.

In particular, the public discussion of the draft Constitution allowed to determine the will of the people of Uzbekistan and to collect a very rich material. This material has been thoroughly and comprehensively studied, summarized and submitted to the discussion of the eleventh session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan of the twelfth convocation in the form of the common will of the people.

At the session, the first President called the Constitution a "people's encyclopedia" and said that it had been worked on for about two years, underwent a two-and-a-half-month public debate, during which time it had been enriched and refined.

About 80 amendments, additions and clarifications were proposed to the draft Constitution submitted for discussion to the session of the Supreme Council.

After the deputies discussed the draft item by item and made a number of amendments to it, on December 1992, 8, our General Encyclopaedia was adopted. From this day, December 8 was declared a national holiday.

Thus, while Uzbekistan has declared a new, sovereign state on the world stage since its declaration of independence, on the day of the adoption of our first Constitution, our state was reborn, and a solid legal basis for our true independence was laid.

The first Constitution of independent Uzbekistan formed and strengthened the reliable legal guarantees of the new independent society.

As the first President Islam Karimov noted, with the adoption of our Constitution, we have the future of Uzbekistan, the deep meaning, essence and essence of our newly built state, political, legal, social, economic, humanitarian and spiritual development, our country. We have clearly defined the ultimate goals of reforming and modernizing our country, which has radically changed its image, its place and prestige in the international community.

The fact that the ideas and norms of the Constitution of Uzbekistan reflect the centuries-old experience and spiritual values, rich historical and legal heritage of our people is a guarantee of its vitality.

At the same time, our Constitution protects and safeguards human rights and interests, freedoms based on the best practices of constitutional construction in many democracies, the universally recognized norms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments in this field. embodying the mechanism.

The adoption of the Constitution has created a clear legal system that regulates relations in all spheres of social and state building, all areas of our national legislation.

Over the past period, the parliament has adopted 8 constitutional laws, 15 codes, more than 600 laws, ratified more than 200 multilateral international agreements in accordance with the norms of the Constitution, thus creating an integrated legal mechanism for the implementation of our Basic Law. Its effectiveness has been shown by time itself, and it is recognized by the world community today.

It is not in vain that such a high and objective assessment of our Basic Law is given. This can be explained by the following reasons, including.

First, our Constitution is truly a democratic Constitution. It is a document that embodies universal, universal values ​​and international standards, tested in history.

Second, our Constitution is based on the historical experience of the most developed, developed countries. In doing so, we have studied and taken into account the most advanced foreign constitutional practices, rather than blindly copying the ready Constitution of any state. As a result, our General Encyclopaedia is now competing with the Constitution of any developed country in the world.

Third, the ideas and norms of the Constitution are based on the deep historical roots of the Uzbek people, which includes centuries of experience and spiritual values, the legal heritage of our great ancestors.

In short, the process of drafting, discussing and adopting the Constitution is a reflection of the First President Islam Karimov's "Constitution, which introduces the state as a state, the nation as a nation," which reflects the "will, spirit, social consciousness and culture of our people. It clearly confirms the correctness and validity of the wise conclusions that it is “the product of the thinking and creativity of our people”.