CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization signed Memorandum of Understanding

The Memorandum of Understanding setting out the principles and objectives of the cooperation between the two organizations was signed by Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council Valentina Matvienko and World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab.

The IPA CIS and the WHO have been promoting mutual partnership for about 20 years. They co-organized the events that covered a wide sphere of bioethics regulation. Since 2000 seminars on the protection of human rights in medicine took place in St. Petersburg, Baku, Chisinau and Minsk and attracted interest of human rights organizations. The WHO actively participated in the drafting of the model laws on Protection of Human Dignity During Biomedical Research in the CIS Member Nations and on Combating HIV/AIDS in the CIS Member Nations.

The signing of the Memorandum will allow the parties to promote engagement including through cooperation with the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights and the IPA CIS Board of Experts on Public Health.

The purpose of the Memorandum is to provide a framework for the joint efforts of the Regional Office and of the IPA CIS to promote the public health legislation and policies of Member Nations of the IPA CIS.

The Memorandum provides for the discussion by the representatives of the respective permanent commissions of the IPA CIS and the WHO the issues of mutual interest, as well as exchange of experience and legal information on the implementation of policies related to public health and international health cooperation.

The Regional Office shall utilize the results of this cooperation in its collaborative programmes with the public health ministries of the Member Nations of the IPA CIS.

The full text of the Memorandum is available in the IPA CIS website.