New Uzbekistan: From Constitutional Reforms to Constitutional Stability

2025: A Year of Milestones

The year 2025 is marked by an exceptional concentration of commemorative and landmark anniversaries. It is particularly noteworthy that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the United Nations and the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act of the CSCE. At the anniversary 80th session of the General Assembly, the international community once again reaffirmed the need to transform the UN’s work identifying opportunities to enhance efficiency, revising the procedure for implementing mandates, and exploring potential structural changes and program restructuring.

In 2025, the global community also celebrates the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the first legally binding human rights treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as well as the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which laid the foundation for the gender dimension of modern social and political life.

Human rights are an indicator of the progress of modern civilization. Unfortunately, ongoing global socio-economic crises, trade conflicts, climate change, and threats to food security continue to exert a profound impact on the state of human rights and impede progress toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Today, New Uzbekistan is confidently advancing along the path of irreversible democratic reforms, pursuing a pragmatic foreign policy, conducting an open and active dialogue with the international community, and implementing large-scale reforms aimed at strengthening guarantees for the protection of human rights and freedoms.

The 21st Century: The Constitutional Map of the World

We live in a world of constitutions shaped by rapidly changing dynamics and characterized by significant diversity. Today, constitutions help form national identity, ease social tensions, adapt human life to interaction with machines and artificial intelligence, and respond to natural and technogenic crises.

The first quarter of the twenty-first century has witnessed an unprecedented wave of constitutional reforms and constitutional renewal worldwide. The empirical data are telling: approximately 60 new constitutions have been adopted across the globe during this period, parliaments have considered amendments to constitutions more than 750 times. Practically no constitution in the world has remained unchanged. In essence, contemporary constitutions seek to reflect the combined imperatives of globalization and national development.

Indeed, the possibility of introducing amendments is a fundamental feature of all written constitutions. One key characteristic of constitutional reform is the strengthening of national constitutional identity by enshrining fundamental values, above all, state sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country, as well as the protection of family and childhood.

This intense global constitutional dynamism inevitably requires turning to the foundations of constitutional transformation, which, in turn, calls for a theoretical understanding of constitutionalism, modern constitutional legal thinking.

Understanding the Constitution presupposes not only theoretical interpretation but also its real implementation: the "Constitution in action." The primary goal is to build a constitutional state.

The development of a constitution has always reflected the main stages of the development of society and the state itself.

Encompassing virtually all aspects of national and social development, the Constitution determines the most generalized form of normative regulation. More often than other laws, including codes, the Constitution addresses society as a whole, its social strata, and the individual citizen.

A study of global constitutional transformations demonstrates a defining trend: the enduring need to adapt a country’s Basic Law to the demands of modernity and to ensure its capacity to respond to emerging global and challenges.

The 21st Century: Trends in Global Constitutional Development

In addressing the challenges of an increasingly globalized world across various spheres of constitutional regulation, one inevitably encounters the broader question of legal understanding, particularly constitutional interpretation. The profound transformations occurring within the socio-economic structures and political life of individual states are, in one way or another, reflected in the evolution of constitutional law.

The principal trends of contemporary global constitutional development may be summarized as follows:

• comprehensiveness of constitutional reforms, encompassing political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian domains, as well as the interconnections and mutual conditionality between constitutional reforms and broader modernization processes;

• expansion of the scope of constitutional regulation, including reforms of governance mechanisms and transitions in systems of government;

• development of constitutional space, strengthening legal sovereignty, and shaping the constitutional identity of the state;

• broadening of the catalogue of constitutional rights and freedoms, and enhancement of judicial guarantees for the protection of human rights;

• expansion of the powers of constitutional justice, including the introduction of mechanisms for direct individual access to constitutional courts;

• globalization of constitutional lawmaking, manifested in the incorporation of universally recognized principles and norms of international law into national constitutions;

• environmentalization of constitutional development, coupled with the constitutionalization of the right to accessible, high-quality medical care;

• recognition and protection of digital rights, institutionalization of the information society, and legal regulation of cybersecurity;

• internationalization of constitutional development and the increasing influence of international legal norms.

In the contemporary world, the Constitution stands as one of the primary instruments for ensuring political and social stability and for supporting the sustainable development of civil society.

Modern constitutions extend far beyond the mere establishment and regulation of relations among branches of government or the definition of procedural frameworks. They have undergone a process of humanization, assigning central importance to the individual and to various social groups by incorporating bills of rights and fundamental freedoms as core elements of constitutional design. The success of constitutional reforms depends, to a significant extent, on the level of support they receive from diverse sectors of society.

Distinctive Features of the Constitution of New Uzbekistan

The United Nations emphasizes that "constitution-making is a sovereign national process, and for it to succeed, it must be led and carried out by the country itself. There is no single 'template’ for constitutional models or processes, and national ownership must include the participation of state institutions, political parties, civil society, and the broader public."

The first distinctive feature of the most recent constitutional reforms in Uzbekistan is precisely the broad participation of the population. The amendments were drafted following an open and unrestricted public discussion, which ensured wide civic engagement and substantive debate.

The second feature concerns the constitutional and legal status of human rights institutions. In accordance with the Paris Principles and the recommendations of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, Uzbekistan has established national human rights institutions. It has become the fourth country in the world after Mexico, Morocco, and Egypt to enshrine the constitutional status of such institutions.

The third feature is the strengthening of guarantees for the effective protection of human rights and freedoms. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action called upon states to adopt national human rights action plans. To date, more than 150 national plans or strategies have been adopted in 80 countries.

Since 2020, Uzbekistan has been implementing its National Human Rights Strategy, which includes the introduction of a constitutional complaint mechanism and expanding access to the Constitutional Court. A new Strategy to 2030 is currently under development, with priority given to safeguarding fundamental rights in accordance with the new Constitution.

The fourth feature concerns the formation of a culture of constitutional awareness among citizens. Within the framework of the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education, Uzbekistan is undertaking measures to strengthen human rights education across its educational institutions.

It is no coincidence that at the Sixth Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, held in Madrid in October 2025, participants called for the development of a culture of constitutionalism one in which judicial decisions are implemented in good faith and judicial critique remains constructive. Transparency, accountability, and sustained dialogue with social institutions and civil society serve to strengthen, rather than weaken, the independence of the judiciary.

Thirty Years of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It is worth recalling that as early as 1990, thirty-five years ago, the first law on constitutional oversight was adopted in Uzbekistan, establishing the Committee for Constitutional Supervision.

Over the decades of its existence, the Constitutional Court has developed a substantive body of constitutional jurisprudence. At the same time, this jurisprudence continues to evolve, a clear indication that the legal system remains dynamic, progressing in tandem with broader socio-political processes and institutions.

In the context of the Court’s thirtieth anniversary, particular attention should be paid to the recent amendments to the Constitutional Law "On the Constitutional Court", the foundations of which were laid by the 2023 constitutional reform. Crucially, the amendments affecting the status of the Constitutional Court and its procedural framework are grounded both in longstanding national practice and in positive international experience.

One major innovation is the introduction of the principle of exhaustion of domestic remedies as a prerequisite for admissibility. Under this principle, applicants must first exhaust all available judicial remedies within the national legal system before a complaint may be accepted for consideration. Although such a rule may initially appear ambiguous or even restrictive with respect to access to constitutional justice, in practice it is aimed at enhancing the quality and functionality of the constitutional review mechanism. It ensures coherent operation of the entire judiciary and prevents the duplication of judicial functions.

A notable development in 2024 was the request submitted by the National Human Rights Centre to the Constitutional Court seeking interpretation of Article 86 of the Constitutional Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan." The Court clarified that the "day of completion of judicial proceedings" refers to the day on which the final judicial document is issued following the adjudication of a case.

Another significant enhancement of the Court’s legal status concerns the expansion of its powers. Most prominently, the Court is now authorized to issue opinions on the constitutionality of questions submitted to a national referendum. This competence was successfully tested during the 2023 constitutional reform.

Based on thirty years of experience of the Constitutional Court, it is entirely fair to conclude that the legal formulas enshrined in the Constitution not only have profound legal significance, but also remain in continuous development.

By applying and interpreting the Constitution, the Constitutional Court reveals not only the 'letter’ but also the 'spirit’ of its various provisions at each new stage of development, thereby adapting it to changing relations in society.

The thirtieth anniversary provides an important juncture at which to assess the interim results of the development of constitutional justice in New Uzbekistan. The Constitutional Court has demonstrated steadfast commitment to the fundamental legal principles embedded in the Constitution, helping to create and strengthen the legal foundations for the country’s ongoing development.