Legislative Chamber adopted the Law “On State Secrets”

The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis has adopted a law concerning non-disclosing emergencies, crime situations, human rights violations, and other similar information. This announcement was made during the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan meeting on August 20.

It was noted that the Legislative Chamber adopted the Law "On State Secrets," replacing the current Law on Keeping State Secrets, which was enacted in 1993, and has now sent it to the Senate for approval. The new law defines the powers related to the protection of state secrets, specifies levels of confidentiality, sets the duration of permissions for accessing state secrets, and outlines procedures for declassifying information.

"A limited list of four categories of information that should be classified as state secrets has been approved. Additionally, a list of information that cannot be classified as secret has been defined. According to the new law, emergencies, crime situations, human rights violations, and other similar information will not be kept secret," the report stated.

For reference, the 1993 law stipulated that only information threatening the personal safety of citizens could not be classified.

Currently, state secrets are divided into three categories: state secrets, military secrets, and service secrets:

• State secrets: Information whose disclosure could negatively impact the Republic's military-economic capabilities or cause other serious consequences for the defense, state security, or economic and political interests of Uzbekistan.
• Military secrets: Military-related information whose disclosure could result in serious consequences for the defense capability, state security, and Armed Forces of Uzbekistan.
• Service secrets: Information related to science, technology, production, and management, whose disclosure could harm the interests of Uzbekistan.