Activities ALL EVENTS
Experts Discussed New Areas of Activity of IPA CIS IIMDD
22 April 2022
On 22 April 2022, the IPA CIS IIMDD held an expert meeting that discussed the new areas of work of the Institute, issues of establishment of an expert advisory board, introducing a course of lectures at Commonwealth universities on the activities of the IIMDD and a number of other issues.
Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Dmitriy Kobitskiy addressed the participants of the event with a welcoming speech. The Secretary General noted that the revised Provisions on the IPA CIS IIMDD expanding the area of its activities had been adopted at the anniversary meeting of the IPA CIS Council on 29 March 2022.
IPA CIS IIMDD Director Ivan Musket spoke in more detail about the revised Provisions, which feature the establishment of an expert advisory board at the IIMDD; participation in scientific activities, monitoring of elections in countries that are not IPA CIS Member Nations, participation in the development of model laws in the field of development of democracy, parliamentarism and suffrage; establishment of IPA CIS offices in the IPA CIS Member Nations.
Executive Director of the Russian Foundation for Free Elections, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences Maxim Leskov noted the great importance of the activities of the IPA CIS IIMDD in promoting international cooperation and raising legal awareness of citizens. The Executive Director proposed to consider the possibility of creating a youth office within the framework of the IPA CIS IIMDD Expert Advisory Board, whose activities will be aimed at promotion of practical skills and knowledge in the field of elections and referendums among young people, as well as international cooperation between representatives of CIS youth organizations. The next important step in raising legal awareness of youth will be the creation of the international competition for CIS schoolchildren in social sciences. This initiative was supported by the IPA CIS Council on 29 March 2022 in Almaty.
The meeting also discussed the introduction of a lecture course on the activities of the Institute as part of the implementation of the Plan of Priority Measures in the Field of Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States for 2021-2022, approved by the Council of the CIS Heads of Government on 6 November 2020. IPA CIS IIMDD experts and staff members drafted a working program of the course “International Observation of Elections and Referendums” that was presented by Head of the Department of World Politics, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, member of the expert group under the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg and the Russian Association of Political Science, Ph.D., Associate Professor Dmitry Baryshnikov.
According to Deputy Dean for International Affairs of the Department of International Relations of Belarusian State University Oleg Leshenyuk, the course program can be successfully introduced within the framework of educational programs of double diploma from St. Petersburg State University and Belarusian State University.
Professor of the Department of European Studies, Faculty of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University, Doctor of Economic Sciences Stanislav Tkachenko proposed to develop the educational and methodological activities of the IPA CIS IIMDD. Professor of the National Graduate School of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty region, Doctor of Legal Sciences Sarkytbek Moldobayev highlighted the issues of raising legal awareness, monitoring of electoral rights of citizens and stressed the relevance of the activities of the IPA CIS IIMDD.
At the end of the meeting, the participants exchanged views on preparations for the conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chisinau Convention scheduled for 6-7 October 2022 in St. Petersburg.
The meeting was also attended by Head of the International Relations Department of the Saratov State Law Academy, Director of the Non-Profit Partnership “Eurasia-Volga Region” Information and Analytical Center, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor Marina Lapenko; Rector of the Institute of Adult Continuing Education; Candidate of Law Sciences Alexander Potyakin; Professor of the Department of European Studies, Faculty of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University, Director of the Center for Belarusian Studies, Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economic Sciences Nikolai Mezhevich.
