The 137th IPU Assembly completed its work in Tavricheskiy Palace

The 137^th IPU Assembly completed its work in St. Petersburg. The IPA CIS delegation took part in the events, which took place at the IPA CIS HQ from 14 to 18 October.

The IPA CIS delegation was led by Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council and included Chairman of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Culture, Information, Tourism and Sport Sergey Rybakov, IPA CIS Council Secretary General Alexey Sergeev and SG his deputies – Plenipotentiary Representatives of the IPA CIS Member Parliaments.

On behalf of the IPA CIS, Sergei Rybakov addressed the Assembly on the theme “Promoting cultural pluralism and peace through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue". The work of the IPA CIS activities that unites the supreme legislative bodies of 9 states is aimed not only at promoting dialogue between national parliaments, but also at converging positions on such sensitive issues as pluralism of opinions and cultures, ethnic and religious diversity," noted Sergei Rybakov.

On the final day of its work, the Assembly adopted the resolution Sharing our Diversity: The 20^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Democracy . The text of the resolution reflected the possible establishment of the International Day of Parliamentarism on 30 June in honour of the first Assembly of the IPU in 1889,proposed by the IPA CIS, an associate member of the IPU. .

The Assembly took note of the the Russian version of the IPU's document "Parliaments and Sustainable Development Goals: A Self-Assessment toolkit " published by the IPA CIS and approved the hosting of the regional seminar on the sustainable development goals for the CIS parliamentarians in 2018 in St. Petersburg.

In the margins of the 137^th IPU Assembly, IPA CIS Council Secretary General Alexey Sergeev held a number of meetings with the heads of parliamentary delegations attending the activities of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, including with Speaker of the Mejlis of Turkmenistan Akja Nurberdiyeva, Chairman of the Committee of the Legislative Chamber of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Democratic Institutions and NGOs and Civil Society Akmal Saidov, Secretary General of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly Mohammad Reza Majidi.