Uzbekistan president signs law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations

President Mirziyoyev signing the new law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations.

TASHKENT: President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a new edition of the law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations.

The law aims at strengthening the guarantees of freedom of conscience and legal mechanisms to ensure the right of every person to profess any religion or not to profess any religion, as well as improving state policy on religious affairs, UzDaily has reported.

The relevance of this Law lies in the fact that it serves to eliminate the problems that citizens previously encountered in practicing religion, to ensure religious education and the free functioning of religious organizations and to prevent the emergence of interreligious and interethnic conflicts, it added.

The law will allow maintaining relations of friendship and tolerance between nations and peoples living in our country, and ensuring respect for their various religious beliefs and feelings.

Under the law, the procedure for registration and termination of activities of religious organizations is simplified. Thus, the number of citizens required to initiate the creation of local religious organizations, including mosques and places of worship of other confessions is halved to 50.

The requirement for the presence of 100 initiators for the creation of a central governing body of a religious organization and religious educational institutions has been canceled.

The law stipulates that the state is the guarantor of the realization of the rights of citizens and ensuring peace and harmony in society, creating conditions for a dignified life for citizens.