Country Governance Briefing: Uzbekistan widens court review of state bodies

Uzbekistan's governance agenda this autumn runs through the presidency. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev sets reforms at presentations by ministries and agencies, which the presidential website publishes, and turns them into decrees and draft laws for the two chambers of the Oliy Majlis. Three moves since September show the pattern: a plan to give administrative courts wider powers over state bodies, the merger of two education ministries, and a Senate vote on a child-protection law that now needs the president's signature.

The institutional change with the widest reach is the merger. A presidential decree reorganised the Ministry of Preschool and School Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation into a single Ministry of Education and Science, the president's press secretary Sherzod Asadov said on his official channel, as Gazeta reported on 3 October. According to the same report, Asadov said the reform envisages "a unified, effective management system covering every stage from preschool to higher education, as well as scientific activity" and greater accountability of the system to the public.

The state's own data is also being rebuilt. A presidential meeting on 2 September set out a new data management model for the national statistical system.

Open reforms

• Administrative justice. On 22 September the president reviewed proposals to introduce around 15 new legal institutions in administrative justice, the presidential website says. Citizens and entrepreneurs now have a single form of claim against a state body; four types of claims are proposed. Claims seeking recognition that a state body broke the law would no longer be bound by the current six-month limit. Citizens would gain the right to challenge regulatory acts of local authorities directly in court, and the courts would be authorised to review "the legality and reasonableness of the exercise of discretionary powers" by state bodies, applying the proportionality principle in Article 20 of the constitution. An official who has been fined for failing to enforce a court decision and fails again would be reported to the prosecutor. The president supported the initiatives; no draft law had been published by 17 October.
• Child protection. The Senate approved a law on 2 October that raises the penalty for the rape of a child under 14 to up to 25 years or life imprisonment, from 15 to 20 years, removes limitation periods for particularly serious sexual crimes against children, bars suspended sentences and parole for intentional crimes causing a child's death, and requires video recording of interrogations of child victims, Gazeta reported from the Senate session. Minor victims and witnesses get free state legal aid from their first procedural step, and staff of educational organisations held accountable for violence against a child may be dismissed. The law takes effect once the president signs it. It continues the Strategy for Protecting Children from All Forms of Violence for 2026 to 2030.

Court and regulator actions

• Cotton harvest labour. The national monitoring of cotton pickers' working conditions runs from 25 September to 31 October with 65 specialists drawn from sectoral trade unions, the labour inspectors of the Federation of Trade Unions, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the national association of non-governmental organisations, who inspect farms chosen by random GPS coordinates, Gazeta reported. Workers can report violations through the Federation of Trade Unions. The federation recorded no child or forced labour in 2025, but found 166 cases of delayed wages affecting 8,752 pickers and 227 cases of work without a contract affecting 9,075 people. In the same season the State Labour Inspectorate visited 986 farms and fined 116 officials a total of 397.44 million soums for non-payment of wages, according to the report. Results of the 2026 season are due in December.

Programme conditions

Uzbekistan has no IMF lending arrangement. The IMF's country page names none and shows SDR 82.84 million of outstanding credit at 31 March 2026. Its external benchmarks therefore come from surveillance. Concluding the 2026 Article IV consultation on 18 June, the Executive Board asked the authorities to "accelerate governance reforms, including whistleblower protection and asset declaration frameworks", to "advance SOE reform via privatization where feasible and stronger governance where state ownership remains" and to "accelerate restructuring and privatization of SOCBs", the state-owned commercial banks, press release 26/214 shows. Directors also called on the government to "strengthen competition policy, operationalize sector regulators, and complete WTO accession", to "safeguard central bank autonomy" and to introduce "a complementary operational anchor, such as a ceiling on the non-mineral primary deficit".

The economy gives the government room to act. Real GDP grew 7.7 per cent in 2025, and the consolidated budget deficit was 2.1 per cent of GDP, according to the same release. In its October World Economic Outlook, published on 12 October, the IMF raised its 2026 growth forecast for Uzbekistan to 7.8 per cent from 6.8 per cent and expects the current account deficit to widen to 5.1 per cent of GDP, Gazeta reported, citing the report.

What to watch: the draft legislation that would carry the 22 September proposals, the president's signature on the child-protection law, the December results of the cotton monitoring and any date for the completion of WTO accession, which the IMF lists among the structural priorities.