Wednesday, 25 November 200911th Asian Ombudsman Association Conference was held in Bangkok in early November this year. Authorized Person of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan for Human Rights (Ombudsman) professor Saiyora Rashidova made a presentation on the "Role of the Ombudsman of Uzbekistan in human rights protection".
The following is transcript of the speech of prof. Saiyora Rashidova at the 11th Asian Ombudsman Association Conference.
Dear Conference Participants!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues!
It is a privilege to be speaking at this important Conference, before such a distinguished audience. First of all, let me t thank Asian Ombudsman Association and Ombudsmen Institution of Thailand for organization and realization of the given conference as well as for hospitality and conditioning for our effective work.
The issues that we are discussing are very important and burning safeguarding human rights under the conditions of world financial crisis, when there is poverty, labor migration, human trafficking, torture, terrorism threat, environmental safety. Today the search of solutions requires efforts not of one certain nation, but the entire world community, because these problems, among other global problems, have outgrown national boundaries, they require collective solutions and consolidation of efforts of every progressive thinking person.
Last year the world community solemnly and broadly celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the fifteenth anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action on Human Rights and Paris Principles relating to status of national human rights institutions.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the first international document, which Uzbekistan joined after declaration of State Independence. All provisions of the UDHR have been implemented on the Constitution and the national legislation of Uzbekistan. According to the Constitution, the ultimate value is the human being, his life, freedom, honour, dignity and other inalienable rights. Now Uzbekistan fully abolished the death penalty, and introduced a democratic institute of justice "habeas corpus".
Determining its policy of establishment of democratic state with rule of law, Uzbekistan announced a person, personal rights and freedoms as the paramount value. "The most important program task of the new stage of development is further democratization and liberalization of all aspects of public life, state and social construction, strengthening of independent judicial system, protection of human rights and freedoms, increasing political, economic activeness of population, creation of bases of civil society", stated President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.
It should be noted, that the peculiar feature of reforms taking place in our country, including in the judicial and legal system, is their gradual, dynamic nature. A special note should be given to the functioning of completely new bodies in the system of legislative and executive branch of power, that is national institutions on human rights, among which is Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Dear colleagues,
Let me briefly to inform you on activity of the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Uzbekistan, which was established by initiative of the President of Uzbekistan I.Karimov in 1995 and one of the first among the CIS countries. In 1997 the law on Ombudsman was adopted, and in 2004 it was published in new wording. Now Ombudsman is a constitutional body for human rights protection.
In April, 2009 Parliament adopted Law оn Introduction of Amendments and Addenda into Some Legislative Acts regarding implementation of law on Ombudsman. Now novelties are made to the Criminal Procedure Code and Code on Execution of Criminal Punishments, aimed at strengthening guaranties of prisoners' rights during their appeal to Ombudsman. It is provided that prisoners' correspondence to be send to the Ombudsman shall nor be subject to censorship as well as meet and interview detained and convicted persons.
It is worth to note, from 2008 the Ombudsman actively involved to the implementation of public control over the application of the Amnesty act, as well as ensuring publicity and transparency. We think that introducing those novelties in the legislation will become a good basis for improvement of Ombudsman activities in Uzbekistan. Now the creation of the Ombudsman on prisoners rights are discussing.
During 15 years the work of Ombudsman has become a real factor of the effective protection of citizens' rights and the dynamics of petitions to Ombudsman for protection of rights and freedoms speaks of a quite high level of receptiveness of this institution by the public.
If in 1995 Ombudsman received only 262 petitions, in 2008 it was already 9,962 petitions, which proves the increased trust of population and the authority of Ombudsman institution in the society. During these years the Ombudsman received more than 65 thousand petitions from citizens, and according to analysis, for the last four years the nature of petitions has changed.
So, if before 2003 the largest number of citizens' complaints was related to violations of rights of citizens in the judicial system, during the period starting from 2004 the majority of petitions was related to social economic issues. The changes in nature of complaints once again reflect the results of ongoing reforms in the judicial and legal area and processes of establishment of strong civil society, and also visually prove increased legal literacy of population, which is more often referring to legal means of protection of rights and interests.
In Uzbekistan a national system of human rights monitoring has been created, one of the elements of which is activities of Ombudsman. During the past period Ombudsman has carried out monitoring research in all regions of the republic on such a topical issues, as observation of rights of women and children, rights of citizens to access courts and appeal to state agencies, rights of residence owners, rights of farmers and entrepreneurs, rights of disabled persons and patients.
This year the Ombudsman office has conducting the monitoring of the observance of the Law on Ombudsman and Citizens Applications in every region of the country. With a purpose of realization of the parliamentary control over implementation of the Law "On combating against human trafficking" the Ombudsman had also participate of the activity of Special Commission on combating against human trafficking.
Since 2000, representatives of Ombudsman are functioning in all regions of Uzbekistan, and greatly increase effectiveness of Ombudsman work by conducting their own investigations on received petitions from citizens with going to the site, including penitentiary institutions, as well as by providing on annual basis at the appropriate meetings of representation bodies of the regions information on human rights observation on sites.
Dear participants!
Uzbekistan as a part of the integrated global economic space has already been enduring and will further endure the negative and ever tougher consequences of the global crisis. Government have already embarked on elaborating the Anti-crisis action program taking into account the concrete conditions and state of affairs in Uzbekistan economy. At the moment, the Anti-crisis action program on preventing and neutralizing the consequences of the global economic crisis after being tested and approved had been sent to concrete executors both in various branches and territories.
It is necessary to carry out a thorough work to further enhance and strengthen the legislative and legal basis related to the implementation of the aforementioned program, adopt new and introduce amendments and addenda to existing legislative acts. The special attention is pay to the issues of development of humanitarian sphere and effective solutions of social problems of population.
At the same time, any reforms in the social sector, similarly its implementation should be thoroughly scrutinized, as the compliance with the rights of not only common citizens but also those from socially vulnerable groups not capable of independently protecting their own rights, depend on them. Now the Ombudsman receive fewer complaints about violations of citizens' social rights than in the previous years, still 70% are the requests to provide assistance in addressing issues related to obtaining material aid, compensation, and social benefits.
With the purposes of strengthening of the good governance in the public administration, one of the priorities in Ombudsman activities is deepening of interaction with state agencies, including with judicial and law enforcement bodies on different levels, using the national and international experience. The success of their cooperation is related to the effectiveness of activities of the Ombudsman, its capabilities for strengthening the trust between society and power.
Successful interaction of state and judicial bodies with Ombudsman institution is facilitated by agreements. So, Ombudsman has agreements with the Constitutional Court, Office of Prosecutor General, Ministries of Justice, Health, Association of Judges, Council of Trade Unions Federation on cooperation, the Research Center under the Supreme Court for solving human rights problems. With the purpose of expedient solution of complaints, joint working groups are successfully functioning at the central level and regionally.
With the purpose of strengthening to role of Ombudsman in improvement of activities of state administration agencies in Uzbekistan, the great attention is given to increasing the role of Ombudsman as a mediator between the power and citizen, including by means of establishment of specialized ombudsmen. In four higher education institutions university ombudsmen are functioning successfully. In order to exercise control over the activities of medical institutions in three regions offices of ombudsmen on patients' rights were instituted. The idea of establishment of children's ombudsman gained great support of society.
Let me tell a few words about cooperation of the Authorized Person for Human Rights with international organizations in the sphere of human rights. The parliamentary Ombudsman of Uzbekistan is a voted member of two international ombudsman organizations – International Ombudsman Institute since April 1998, being one of the first among the CIS countries, and European Ombudsman Institute since May 2002, as the first among Central Asian countries.
In October 2007 we had submitted our Application form for Asian Ombudsman Association Membership, and in April, 2008 in the AOA Board approved our application and recommended to General Assembly. Now we hope the AOA General Assembly also support our goal to join to the AOA, who presents a unique opportunity for ombuds institutions to share experience and exchange fruitful information as well as supporting contacts between Asian ombudsmen. We hope our membership in the AOA also support for improving our activity in human rights protection.
For successful resolution complaints of citizens, including those from foreign nationals, migrants and their family members, the parliamentary Ombudsman of Uzbekistan has concluded 9 agreements on cooperation with Ombudsmen of Russia, Poland, Sweden, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Spain, France, and Bulgaria.
Substantive support to the Ombudsman's activities is being provided through projects on institutional development, implemented in cooperation with the OSCE Project Coordinator, UNDP, K. Adenauer Foundation. In particular, international conferences with participation of ombudsmen of Spain, Russia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria were organized.
Thus, the unique nature and difference of Ombudsman of Uzbekistan from other similar bodies is that throughout the period of its functioning it managed not only to create effective mechanisms of reviewing public complaints, but also establish its own system of monitoring of observation of rights of certain categories of citizens, provide their free access to Ombudsman institution through establishment and development of new institutions for the country – regional Ombudsman representatives. The peculiarity of the Authorized Person for Human Rights in Uzbekistan is also that in its work it relies on international experience, together with implementing in it practice new procedures for restoration of civil rights that are acknowledged in developed democratic countries.
Dear colleagues!
In conclusion I would like to emphasize that Uzbekistan has determined its commitment to further carry on deep democratic reforms in the area of ensuring protection of human rights. Today we are going towards a sovereign democratic state and share in full those basic values and principles, which represent the worldview of the majority of international community. The Ombudsman of Uzbekistan is a product of the Independence, 18 years of which we had celebrated recently.
The international experience has shown that the role of the ombudsmen is growing and increasing. This institute has made huge success by arranging large independence, easily accessible, not formalized, effective and fast responding on the petition. It directly became logo of modern democracies.
We, the ombudsmen community, must make renewed efforts to help the government build modern and prosperous societies, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Let me once again express my gratitude for the organizers of the conference for the great preparation and for the opportunity to participate in this useful for our practical work event.
Thank you for your attention! |
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
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