Uzbek Interior Ministry denies connection between new bill on demontrations and Belarus protests

AKIPRESS.COM - The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan made an official statement on the draft law on demonstrations and refuted the assumptions spread in social media that the bill was prepared after mass protests in Belarus. It was reported earlier that the bill defining the rules for rallies, meetings, demonstrations, street processions, pickets and flash mobs was posted on the website for public discussion of regulations (SOVAZ) until September 2.
The Ministry noted that social media users formed wrong opinion that the need to establish the new law appeared after mass protests in Belarus.
They however said that Uzbekistan's legislation does not define the concepts of meetings, rallies, demonstrations and their order. The decree is aimed to fill in this legal gap.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights noted that Uzbekistan lacks legislative acts that regulate civil activism in their report on the parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan on December 22, 2019.
That's why the government developed the draft law on rallies, the Interior Ministry explained. Russia, USA, Germany, France, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan have similar laws.
"The main purpose of this draft law is to realize the constitutional rights of citizens for their social activity in the form of rallies, meetings and demonstrations, as well as to increase their legal literacy in this area," the Interior Ministry said.