Archival legislation has been revised
The Uzarchive Agency held a briefing on the content of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On introducing amendments and addenda to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan”, adopted on August 13, 2026.
Anvarjon Aliyev, head of the agency’s information service, shared the following details.
– The Legislative Chamber adopted this law on March 11, 2026, and the Senate approved it on August 8, 2026.
The law’s primary goal is to modernize archival practices by integrating digital technologies and aligning them with current needs.
The law introduced several significant amendments and additions to the Law “On Archival Affairs”. Notably, it clarifies essential concepts in archival work and introduces several new terms.
An archive is either a legal entity or a subdivision without legal status that collects, catalogs, stores, and manages archival documents. An electronic copy of an archival document is a digitized duplicate that enables reading or viewing the original information. The concept of an electronic archive was introduced as a system of technical tools designed to support archival activities in digital format.
The law clarifies the Ministry of Justice’s authority. Under the new Article 61, the Ministry is responsible for implementing a unified state policy for archival work.
The ministry develops and approves the legal regulations that govern the sector. It establishes the process for expert assessments of document value and approves the procedures for state archives to offer paid services. It also approves a standard list of documents and their retention periods.
Meanwhile, the Uzarchive Agency continues to provide practical support to the Ministry in this area.
The law requires state bodies and organizations, including enterprises with state participation, to establish departmental archives to collect, manage, store, and use archival documents in accordance with legal procedures. In cases of practical need, this also extends to their directly subordinate subdivisions and branches. Conversely, non-state enterprises, institutions, and organizations are not required to do so but may voluntarily create such archives.
The legal framework for creating non-state and electronic archives has been established, with new Articles 191 and 192 added to the Law “On Archival Affairs”.
Non-state archives collect, store, and use documents from the non-state part of the National Archival Fund. Government bodies and organizations cannot create these archives. Registered legal entities manage them through a notification process to the authorized authority.
The idea of an “electronic archive” has now been legally formalized at the regulatory level, creating new possibilities for the industry.
The electronic archive now has legal recognition as a “system of technical means designed for conducting archival activities in electronic form”. Additionally, the law introduced the concept of an “electronic copy of an archival document”, indicating that a digitized document can have the same legal validity as the original.
In practice, the law (Article 192) sets specific standards for electronic archives, opening up various opportunities.
Specifically, it enables the collection, recording, and electronic storage of documents instead of paper. It allows for rapid searching, management, and remote access to archival documents. The system also ensures the authenticity of digitized documents in relation to the original and provides secure storage through a system that complies with information security and cybersecurity standards.
This concept is fundamentally connected to the Unified National Archival Information System (Chapter 51). State agencies and organizations must incorporate their electronic archives into this unified system, shifting document circulation toward a centralized, efficient, and user-friendly electronic service for citizens.
The new Chapter 51 of the law establishes the concept of the “Unified National Archival Information System” and its legal basis.
The Uzarchive Agency will own this system and oversee its use across other departments. It requires state agencies, organizations, and enterprises with government participation to connect their electronic archival systems to it, except for documents that are classified as state secrets.
Information shared through the system is considered an official document under legal standards. The law also specifies retention periods for these documents.
The law also updates the retention periods for different types of archival documents in departmental archives. Confidential documents must be kept for 30 years, personnel documents created before January 1, 2019, for 75 years, and those created after January 1, 2019, for 50 years.
The law grants benefits to citizens. The recent amendment states that archival certificates required for the social protection of citizens’ rights and legal interests, along with archival certificates and copies of documents supplied to government agencies, will be issued at no cost.
Gulnoza Boboyeva, UzA
