In Uzbekistan, volunteers will be instilled values of national mentality
The Parliament unanimously and immediately in three readings adopted the law “On volunteering”, the media of Uzbekistan reported. The press service of the Legislative Chamber noted the significant potential that can be used for socio-economic and political development.
“In the course of their work, volunteers provide a number of socially important services, produce certain goods, thereby satisfying the needs of part of society at the expense of their own resources, taking on certain functions of state authorities. This, in turn, saves significant budget funds,” the press service said.
Experts believe that government concern for volunteers can easily be transformed into the practice of using forced labor of young people – from supposedly voluntary participation in cotton picking to street cleaning. The Youth Union of Uzbekistan, the Red Crescent Society, and the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan use the work of volunteers most actively.
Based on the logic of the deputies, such a benefit to society should be put in a certain ideological framework in accordance with the authority directions on spirituality. According to Ludmila Koshelapova, the deputy from the faction of the Social Democratic Party “Adolat”, “there is a situation in the country in which the volunteer movement is actively developing, but on the other side, it does not have an appropriate legislative base. Such “blank spots” in the legislation can create a wide field for various kinds of people, including from abroad, who are actively trying to unite country’s youth, instill in them values that do not coincide with the national mentality and state policy in this area.”
Earlier, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoev signed the decree on transforming the Independent Institute for monitoring the formation of civil society into the Center for the development of civil society. Projects implemented in the country, that affect the rights and legitimate interests of civil society institutions, are now necessarily coordinated with the Center. Independent researcher Alisher Ilhamov called the new Center a political control structure.
The head of one officially registered non-governmental organization, in an interview with ACCA, said that a large bureaucratic system of pseudo-activity and pseudo-volunteering is being created, which international donor organizations will also reckon with. “It will be increasingly difficult to get support from really working organizations,” she notes. “The authorities have clearly defined the ideological rather than the social essence of civic passion and have already put the media and the blogging community at the service of their interests, and now active activists will have to make a moral choice. This is what the country’s eco-organizations did in their time, suppressing disgust at the creation of a completely discrediting Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan.”
At the beginning of this year, preferences from the Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov were received by another NGO – the nationwide movement “Yuksalish”, whose chairman by status has the rank of minister.
