International Experts Discussed Cooperation in Public Health
28 October 2020
Today, the 32nd meeting of the CIS Advisory Board on Cooperation in the Field of Public Health took place via videoconferencing. The event brought together the Board members and their plenipotentiary representatives from the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and the CIS Executive Committee, as well as the academia and experts from the Commonwealth countries and heads of public health organizations and representatives of international organizations.
The meeting was presided by Chairman of the Advisory Board, Minister of Public Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan Alisher Shadmanov. He noted that the Board stayed open for dialogue and cooperation and greeted the representatives of the international organizations present at the meeting: the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Association of Directors of Centers and Institutes of Oncology and Radiology of CIS and Eurasian countries.
Executive Secretary of the IPA CIS Board of Experts on Public Health, Secretary of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights Evgenia Vladimirova represented the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly at the meeting.
She reported on the model law-making activity of the Assembly in the field of public health, including the model laws drafted in the framework of the implementation of the Long-Term Plan for Model Law-Making in the Commonwealth of Independent States for 2020–2022. These include the draft model laws on Organ Donation, on Psychiatric Care and Guarantees of the Citizens Rights for its Provision, on Ensuring Children's Rights to Health Care in the CIS.
She focused on the draft Model Law on Organ Donation, which is expected to be submitted to the relevant committees and commissions of the CIS parliaments for their expert opinions after the consideration at the regular meeting of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights. Evgenia Vladimirova invited the Board to get acquainted with the Model Law and to participate in its expert opinion. Moreover, she also mentioned the development of the Model CIS Migration Code and the Model Law on Refugees in the parts regulating provision of the medical aid to labour migrants and refugees respectively.
Head of the Department of Public Health of the European Office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Regional Health and Care Coordinator for IFRC Europe Davron Mukhamadiev informed the Board members on the draft Model Law on Ensuring Equal Access to HIV Infection Prevention and Treatment Services in CIS Member Nations, which is developed by his organization.
The Council decided to ask the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly to consider including the draft Model Law on Radiation Safety in Medicine into the Long-Term Plan of Model Law-Making of the CIS.
Evgenia Vladimirova supported the idea and noted that the Model Law on Radiological Protection of Population adopted in 1997 required adjustment.
The Board members also exchanged information on the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficiency of the measures taken and the development of cooperation among the CIS countries in the fight with the new coronavirus infection. They also discussed different aspects and treatment and prevention of diabetes, issues of inter-agency engagement on limiting marketing of unhealthy foods.
The Board members were also briefed on the decisions of the CIS supreme bodies in the field of public health adopted in 2020, on the implementation of the decisions of the Board and on the implementation in 2018-2019 of the CIS Cooperation Program for Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes for 2016-2020.
