CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and Office of the United Nations high Commissioner for refugees signed a Memorandum of understanding

Secretary General – Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Dmitriy Kobitskiy and Director of the Global Refugee Forum at UNHCR Daniel Endres signed a Memorandum of understanding. The purpose of the Memorandum is to establish mutually beneficial working relations between the organizations.

Dmitriy Kobitskiy focused guests on the importance of migration issues for the IPA CIS: “IPA CIS has developed and adopted 22 model laws and other documents regulating various aspects of migration processes”.

IPA CIS SG also informed Daniel Endres that the draft ML on Refugees was considered on 30 May 2019 at the session of the IPA CIS PC on Social Policy and Human Rights.

Secretary of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights Evgenia Vladimirova told about the draft law, and also stressed the importance of sending the draft ML on Refugees to UNHCR to obtain an expert opinion.

Daniel Endres commended the efforts of the IPA CIS Member Nations to develop regional cooperation, address the mixed migration problem and provide the guaranteed protection of refugees.

The parties also stressed the mutual interest of the organizations in establishing and maintaining long-term cooperation in the provision of international protection and humanitarian assistance to persons under the mandate of UNHCR (refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons and other persons within the competence), and noted a need to organize joint seminars, information sessions, roundtables and conferences.

The Memorandum provides: the mutual provision expert support and recommendations by the IPA CIS and UNHCR, consultations in the development of model law-making and recommendations that compliance with the protection refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons international law norm, standards and relevant documents related to statelessness persons. One of the forms parties` cooperation, which is enshrined in the Memorandum, is the hosting joint seminars, conferences, exhibitions, round tables and joint participation in them, programs delivering and implementation of other mutual interest activities.