Akmal Saidov

Akmal Saidov was born on 11 October 1958 in the Tashkent region. In 1981 he graduated with honours from the law faculty of Tashkent State University, defended his candidate's dissertation in 1984 and his doctoral dissertation in 1990. He is a scholar of comparative law, international law, the theory of state and law and human rights, and his works have been translated into a number of foreign languages.

In 1992–1993 he was director of the Institute of World Problems under the President of Uzbekistan, and in 1993–1994 rector of the Tashkent State Law Institute. In 1994 he received the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; in 1994–1996 he was Uzbekistan's ambassador to France and its permanent representative to UNESCO.

Since October 1996 he has been director of the National Human Rights Centre of Uzbekistan. He has been a deputy of the Oliy Majlis since 1997 and of its Legislative Chamber since 2005, and over three convocations chaired the chamber's Committee on Democratic Institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations and Citizens' Self-Governance Bodies. He ran for president in 2007 as an independent (fourth place) and in 2015 for the Milliy Tiklanish party (second place).

In 2017 he became a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. On 20 January 2020 he was elected to the newly created post of first deputy speaker of the Legislative Chamber and held it until the chamber of the new convocation was formed in November 2024. In May 2022 he was confirmed as chairman of the Constitutional Commission.

On 29 May 2024 he was elected to the UN Human Rights Committee for 2025–2028, the first time a representative of Uzbekistan was elected to it. In June 2025 he was elected a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He holds the orders “Mehnat shuhrati” (2002) and “Do‘stlik” (2006).