CIS Interparliamentary Assembly Holds 51st Plenary Session
27 November 2020
Today, the 51st Plenary Session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States took place via videoconferencing in the Tavricheskiy Palace – the IPA CIS headquarters.
The meeting brought together the parliamentary delegations of the Azerbaijan Republic, 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 and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the representatives of the Mejlis of Turkmenistan. The event was chaired by Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko from the Tavricheskiy Palace.
Outcomes of the Assembly’s Activities
Opening the session, Valentina Matvienko drew the outcomes of the Assembly’s activities over the past period. According to the Speaker, this year, despite the restrictions imposed in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the activities of the organization were carried out in accordance with the approved plan.
Valentina Matvienko recalled that year in all CIS countries was declared the Year of the 75th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Despite the objective difficulties, the Assembly has implemented many of the activities dedicated to this date. “We adopted the Appeal of the IPA CIS Council to the peoples of the Commonwealth countries and the world community, in which the speakers of parliaments expressed deep gratitude to the courage and heroism of the defenders of our Motherland, declared the inadmissibility of deliberate distortion of the causes of World War II and attempts to revise its results, made an appeal to oppose the rehabilitation of the Nazi ideology, manifestations of aggressive nationalism and support the initiative to recognize the Victory over Nazism in the World War II as the World Heritage of Humanity”, she clarified.
According to Valentina Matvienko, the international media project “Memory Lines” launched upon the initiative of the CIS Youth Interparliamentary Assembly is one of the significant activities. It is based on a series of videos from all the IPA CIS Member Nations, in which the verses of national poets about the Great Patriotic War are read together with MPs by veterans, famous actors, broadcasters, athletes, musicians, and youth representatives.
Another media project, “Memory of the Heart”, was also successfully implemented. This is a series of reports, prepared by the interstate television and radio company “Mir”, about family relics and personal stories told, among others, by IPA CIS parliamentarians and members of their families who participated in the war.
YEAR OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORY IN THE CIS INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
On Chairmanship of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the CIS
Speaker of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbaeva delivered a welcoming speech to the participants of the plenary session. She spoke about the outcomes of the large-scale work carried out by the Republic of Uzbekistan as part of its chairmanship in the CIS in 2020: about 50 different events were organized; over 70 documents were adopted in the field of economy and transport, innovation and culture, tourism and sport, youth policy and security.
The Speaker of the Senate also noted the efforts to strengthen parliamentary diplomacy, including within the framework of the IPA CIS, and confirmed her interest in holding one of the Assembly's events in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Speaker of the Mejlis of Turkmenistan Gulshat Mammedova also highly commended the legislative role of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.
Adopted Model Codes and Laws
During the meeting, the MPs considered draft model laws, recommendations and other legal acts prepared by the IPA CIS permanent commissions in 2020.
In total, 26 model laws were adopted at the meeting, and the total number of documents developed and adopted by the IPA CIS reached 594.
