The Ministry of Justice has developed the draft law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "on free legal assistance" and put it into public discussion (https://regulation.gov.uz/uz/d/51721).

Through the social networks on the project, various, in particular, "the Ministry of Justice is taking the sphere of Free Legal Aid under its own influence and control" and other similar opinions and comments are expressed.

The Ministry of Justice informs the following on some of the views and opinions expressed.

First, according to the Constitution, every citizen has the right to be protected through the court. But there is no mechanism and legal basis for providing free legal assistance to low-income persons from the state account in cases of civil, administrative and administrative offenses.

Let's say for example that a citizen named " A " wants to apply to the civil court on the issue of Housing, and for legal advice the material side does not come. This leads to the fact that citizens in need of legal assistance can not use it, as a result of which the possibility of achieving a fair trial of this category can be limited. In this case, it is clear that free legal aid to him is very fast.

Secondly, today, the trade unions, the University of world economy and diplomacy and The Tashkent State University of law have established legal clinics that provide free legal advice to the population. However, there are no normative legal acts that regulate the activities of these clinics and determine their legal status, which in practice causes problems.

In particular, there were many other similar questions-What are the legal clinics that provide free legal advice, what kind of rights they carry out their activities on the basis of which legislation, obligations and so on.

For this reason, the project determines the manner in which the provision of primary free legal assistance is carried out by legal clinics and non-profit organizations.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Justice is not given the authority to control them. On the contrary, the project establishes the competence and legal basis of legal clinics providing free legal assistance.

Third, the project does not provide for the compulsory involvement of consultants in the provision of secondary free legal assistance. That is, the provision of free legal assistance is carried out on a voluntary basis. Bunda entered into the Register of free legal assistance advokatlar advokat can provide free legal assistance in the form of a secondary contract.

Also, the project does not provide for the granting of the authority to control or monitor all advokats in the Republic to the Free Legal Aid Center. Free Legal Aid Center monitors the activities of the advokat, which has entered into an agreement with the Center at its sole discretion and has agreed to provide legal assistance from the state account, in connection with the provision of secondary free legal aid, only in the case.

According to the project, payments to the advokat for secondary free legal aid will be financed by the state. Control over the effective expenditure of funds of the state budget allocated for free legal aid falls on the task of the state body. (For information: in 2020, 31 469 times on the basis of appointment in criminal cases legal aid was provided by the solicitors, 18 251 272 139.75 sums were allocated from the state account).

It is also widely used in world practice, the organization and management of legal assistance from the state account in the USA, Israel, Holland, Great Britain, Finland, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Kyrgyzstan is carried out by a separate Center, byuro, councils. In most states, these structures were established under the Ministry of Justice.

According to the above, this project will serve to the adoption of the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "on Free Legal Aid"on the constitutional guarantee of the rights of citizens to legal protection, provision of free legal assistance to low-income persons from the state accounts.