A round-table conversation has taken place in Tashkent on the subject of “Parliamentary control as an effective mechanism for ensuring the implementation of state programmes and laws on the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection”.

A round-table conversation has taken place in Tashkent on the subject of “Parliamentary control as an effective mechanism for ensuring the implementation of state programmes and laws on the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection”.

The event held by the human rights commissioner (ombudsman) of the Oliy Majlis (parliament) of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan was attended by parliamentarians, ecological scientists, specialists of the State Nature Protection Committee and representatives of nongovernmental non-commercial organizations working in the sphere of environmental protection.

The human rights commissioner of the Oliy Majlis, U.Muhammadiyev; the chairman of the executive committee of the central council of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, B.Alikhonov; and others have said that wide possibilities are being created under the leadership of the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, for public monitoring in all the relevant spheres, and specifically that it is an important factor in ensuring environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources.

The law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On ecological monitoring” specifies the place and role of nongovernmental non-commercial organizations in the area of environmental and public health monitoring and in carrying out ecological monitoring. In accordance with the law, equally with state organizations, people’s local self-government bodies, nongovernmental non-commercial organizations and citizens have the right to participate in the process of ecological monitoring. Work being carried out on this basis is important in finding solutions to problems that exist in this sphere.

“The aim of conducting this event is to protect the environment and to ensure the observance of human rights in the rational use of natural resources,” says a senior information officer of the secretariat of the human rights commissioner of the Oliy Majlis, Anvar Yashnaboyev.

During the seminar, there was discussion about cooperation between state bodies and civil society institutions in ecological monitoring, the observance of the requirements of laws on environmental protection, parliamentary control over the implementation of state programmes on this sphere and the further development of public monitoring and social partnership institutions. There was an exchange of views on raising the population’s ecological culture and the public’s participation in the work for environmental protection as well as stepping up the activeness of public inspectors for ecological monitoring.

During the event, a memorandum was signed on cooperation between the human rights commissioner of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan.