It is publicly known, that guarantees of ensuring the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of a person, including his right for the protection, is one of the priorities of criminal procedure legislation. Since in most cases of judicial investigative practice the level of legal knowledge of a person is insufficient, a person may not be able to protect their rights and legitimate interests, as a result of which these rights may be violated. The most correct solution to this kind of issue is to ensure the rights of a person to the protection.

The demand for professional legal assistance is increasing day by day. Ensuring the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens enshrined in the Constitution, is impossible without defining the legal mechanism at the legislative level. Based on the relevance of this issue, in the updated Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the right to the protection was raised to the highest level, that is the constitutional norm. Particularly, the new version of Article 29 of the Constitution further stipulates that “...everyone shall be guaranteed the right to receive qualified legal assistance. In cases stipulated by law, legal assistance shall be provided at the expense of the state.

Each person shall have the right to legal counsel of his or her choice at any stage of the criminal proceedings, and where the person concerned is detained, as soon as his or her right to freedom of movement is restricted.”

As a result of the implementation of this norm, unconditional guarantees were provided for all segments of the population to receive qualified legal assistance. In turn, legal assistance to socially vulnerable groups of the population is provided at the expense of the government.

In accordance with Article 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and Article 11 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Advocacy” of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated 20 June 2008 No. 137 “On measures to improve the mechanism of payment for legal assistance provided by lawyers at the expense of the government” a suspect, accused or defendant has the right to seek legal assistance, provided by lawyers. When a person is exempted from paying for legal aid due to his insolvency, legal assistance from a lawyer participating in a criminal case by appointment is provided at the expense of the Government - in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In addition, nowadays the constitutional norm also establishes that a person uses the services of a defender from the moment of his detention (from the moment when his right of freedom of movement is actually limited). Indeed in most cases, when a person is detained, there are cases of receiving testimony from a person without explaining his rights and then using this testimony against himself. Granting a person the right to protection from the moment of detention serves for the prevention of negative situations.

In conclusion, it can be said that the further expansion of the individual’s rights to protection and their establishment as a constitutional norm serves not only to actually ensure the individual’s rights to protection in judicial and investigative practice, but also to ensure equal procedural opportunities for them in criminal proceedings.

Professor of the Criminal Procedure Law Department at Tashkent State University of Law, PhD in law B.B.Khidoyatov

Associate Professor of the Criminal Procedure Law Department at  Tashkent State University of Law, PhD in law

B.К.Khudaybergenov