Legislative Chamber sums up results of legal experiment

MPs of the Legislative Chamber from Samarkand and Bukhara, officials of the government, local administrations, civil society and mass media participated at the session, the press service of the lower house of the Uzbek parliament said.

It was stated that holding legal experiment is one of the most interesting and modern methods of legislative processes, which widely used at international practice. Its results will help to receive scientifically sound and practical recommendations on the legislative document and its viability.

The legal experiment, conducted in accordance with the order of the President of Uzbekistan in Samarkand and Bukhara regions during 2013, opened new opportunities for the improvement of the draft law, and introduction of the new promising method in the legislative practice.

The legal experiment helped to determine efficiency of the law, directed at openness and transparency of the state bodies, provide access to the representatives of mass media and civil society to them, etc. it also allowed to determine organizational-legal mechanisms and methods of active participation of the heads of the states in process of explanation of adopted decisions through holding press-conferences, briefings and interviews.

The experiment also helped to test various mechanisms of self-regulation of activities of the journalists (code of journalists’ ethics).

The participants underlined that the experiment significantly improved public relations in information sphere. It was said that 274 requests from citizens, NGOs and mass media to the administrations were received in Samarkand within the legal experiment and 183 from Bukhara region. The district administrations of Samarkand region received 368 requests and Bukhara region – 316. Enterprises of Samarkand region got 2,194 requests and Bukhara – 1,014 requests.

Overall, 2,836 requests were received in Samarkand region and 1,513 in Bukhara region. About 91% of requests were processed and others are at the stage of consideration.

Representatives of NGOs and citizens participated in open meetings of the state bodies of two regions of Uzbekistan.

The participants of the legal experiment also widely used their website to inform public about their activities in Samarkand and Bukhara regions. The experiment helped to improve content of these websites.

The participants considered results of analytical information on social researches, conducted on topical experiment.

The working commission adopted decision directed at summing up results of the legal experiment and improve the draft law “On openness of the activities of the state bodies and administration”.