The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
86
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
‘
ABSTRACT
Raising democratic legal culture is one of the key aspects of the policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
A number of normative legal acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted in this sphere.
This article focuses on describing measures of the Government of Uzbekistan to improve people’s
knowledge of democracy. Furthermore, this work also includes the results of the current research on
evaluating people’s opinions about democracy.
KEYWORDS
Democracy, legal culture, legal awareness, normative legal acts.
INTRODUCTION
Today, serious attention is paid to raise
democratic legal culture as a result of the
ongoing reforms in the political, legal, socio-
economic and cultural-educational spheres in
our country. Only in 2019-2020, a number of
normative legal acts are adopted in this
direction, such as Decree of the President of
the Republic of Uzbekistan
Democratic Legal Culture: How Strong Are Values?
Zafar Ergashev
The Research Institute Of Legal Policy Under The Ministry Of Justice, Uzbekistan
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
87
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
“On radical improvement of the system of
raising legal awareness and legal culture in
society” (
DP-5618, 09/01/2019
), Regulation of
the President “On additional measures to
ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and
laws, to strengthen public control in this regard
and to raise legal culture in society”
(
RP-4551, 13/12/2019
), Regulation of the Cabinet
of Ministries of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On
approval of the Regulation on monitoring and
evaluation of measures to improve legal
culture in society” (
No. 342, 20/04/2019
)
Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministries of the
Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures for
further improvement of the system of legal
assistance and promotion of legal information
to people” (
No. 741, 06/09/2019
).
Based on the objectives of these normative
legal acts, a number of measures are being
taken by the relevant government agencies to
improve democratic legal culture. For instance,
the Ministry of Justice launched the National
legal web portal of the Republic of Uzbekistan
- huquqiyportal.uz. The portal integrates more
than 10 information systems of the Ministry of
Justice, in particular, lex.uz, official websites of
justice
agencies
and
institutions,
bolahuquqlari.uz portals and provides citizens
with convenient access to legal information.
Moreover, the portal of legal information
“
Advice.uz
” (e-maslahat.uz) was launched by
the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of
Uzbekistan. Through this portal, citizens of the
Republic of Uzbekistan, foreign citizens, and
stateless persons can receive free legal advice
online.
For information:
71,000 questions, which
received through the portal of legal information
“Advice.uz”
in 2020, were provided with legal
adviceonline. 24 percent of online appeals are
related to social protection issues, 21 percent to
labor relations and 15 percent to family relations.
In order to maintain the portal of legal
information “
Advice.uz
”, a non-governmental
non-profit
organization
“
Madad
”
was
established. “
Madad
” NGO provides free
primary legal assistance to citizens by
providing legal advice and clarification.
For information:
free legal aid was provided to
41,000 citizens on legal issues by
“Madad”
NGO
in 2020. 14 percent of these issues are related to
the judiciary, 13 percent to social protection, and
11 percent to family relations.
A procedure for monitoring and evaluation of
measures to improve legal culture in society
was introduced in order to assess the ongoing
measures to improve democratic legal culture.
The purpose of this procedure is to increase
the effectiveness of legal information
campaigns directed to raise legal awareness
and legal culture of people, as well as to
strengthen the responsibility of government
agencies and organizations in this regard.
For information:
according to the report of the
Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan,
601,823 advocacy events were held by
government agencies and organizations in 2020.
171,150 oral legal information campaigns were
conducted. 78,335 lectures, 57,364 roundtables,
31,112
seminars,
4,339 conferences were organized on the basis
of these events.
Besides, the Regional Rule of Law Index was
introduced. The Index includes indicators of
democratic legal culture of people, such as
pressure on citizens and journalists who enjoy
the freedom of speech and expression, the
The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
88
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
development of civil society institutions, and
citizen’s participation in the local decision-
making process.
For information:
the Regional Rule of Law Index
is
based
on
182 indicators: 111 indicators are formed on the
basis of statistics which are maintained by 24
organizations, including the Supreme Court, the
Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of
Justice, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
71 indicators are formed on the basis of the
results of sociological survey among people and
legal experts.
In addition, based on the above legislation,
various public events are being held to
promote democratic legal culture in family,
mahalla, educational institutions, government
agencies and non-governmental organizations.
Naturally, the results of reforms in this
direction would be interesting for everyone.
For this purpose, the Research Institute of
Legal
Policy
under
the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with
regional
justice
agencies
conducted
sociological researches in order to assess the
level of democratic legal culture of citizens. The
first sociological research was conducted in
June-September
2019
on “
Current issues of legal awareness and
legal
culture
in
society
”
and
the second research was carried out in July-
November 2020 on “
Raising legal awareness
and legal culture in society: current challenges
and factors of success
”.
1,075
respondents from
70
districts (cities)
across the country took part in the survey that
was conducted as part of the sociological
research in 2020.
In this regard, the results of the analysis of the
answers given by the respondents to some
questions of the survey on democratic legal
culture are noteworthy.
For instance, the major part of the respondents
(
75.8%)
considered that it would be better for a
particular country to accept democracy, i.e. the
system of governing a country through elected
representatives, than other different political
systems, namely autocracy, dictatorship,
aristocracy.
Moreover, more of the respondents (
61.1%
)
positively assessed the level of implementation
of democratic reforms. This can be seen in the
following diagram:
The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
89
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
Furthermore, a greater part of the respondents
(86.3%)
believed that public order could be
maintained through democratic governance.
This
can
be
seen
in
the following diagram:
In addition, the Majority of the respondents (
83.5%)
considered that democracy was better than
other forms of government. This can be seenin the following diagram:
86.30%
11.70%2.00%
Do you think that it is possible to maintain public
order through democratic governance?
Yes
No
No answer
The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
90
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
The results of the sociological survey show that
people
have
positive
ideas
towards
democracy. The majorities of respondents
consider democratic governance system as the
most effective system and support the
acceleration of democratic reforms. They
believe that democratic governance has a
positive impact on maintaining public order
and developing economy.
This is the result of reforms, including adopted
normative legal acts, in recent years to
promote democratic legal culture.
Of course, it is necessary to enhance the
reforms in the field of raising democratic legal
culture, without being limited to the current
results. A number of measures in this field are
planned to implement in the Republic of
Uzbekistan in 2021.
For instance, the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the
Oliy Majlis and the people of Uzbekistan on 29
December 2020. In his Address, he stressed to
establish public participation and control in the
implementation of normative legal acts.
Moreover, he noted to introduce a system of
"public hearings" and "public monitoring", and
to involve civil society institutions, the media
and citizens in this process.
Furthermore, it is planned to create an
integrated system aimed at further enhancing
the role of women in society and public
administration, to develop the draft law “On
free legal aid”, to strengthen social control
over government expenses, to strengthen the
legal framework for ensuring freedom of
speech and comprehensive development of
the media in the state program for
implementation of the national Action Strategy
on five priority development areas 2017-2021 in
the year of youth support and public health
promotion.
In conclusion, it should be noted that great
attention is paid to raise the democratic legal
culture in Uzbekistan. The people have positive
ideas towards democracy. It is expected to
continue the implementation of measures
aimed at developing this sector.
3.30%
13.20%
83.50%
0.00%
10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00%
No answer
No
Yes
Do you think that democracy is better than other forms of
government?
The USA Journals Volume 03 Issue 05-2021
91
The American Journal of Political Science Law and Criminology
(ISSN
–
2693-0803)
Published:
May 31, 2021 |
Pages:
86-91
Doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/tajpslc/Volume03Issue05-14
I
MPACT
F
ACTOR
2021:
5.
952
REFERENCES
1.
Decree of the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan “On radical improvement of
the system of raising legal awareness and
legal
culture
in
society”
<
https://lex.uz/docs/-4149765> accessed 04
May 2021
2.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Address to
the Oliy Majlis on 29 December 2020 <
https://president.uz/en/lists/view/4057>
accessed 04 May 2021
3.
Handbook about the results of the
sociological survey on “Current issues of
legal awareness and legal culture in
society” (2019) <https://hsti.uz/?p=25715>
accessed 04 May 2021
