REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CIS LEGISLATION IN PEACEKEPING OPERATIONS

St. Petersburg, October 1—4, 2003

In St. Petersburg at the headquarters of interparliament assembly of CIS (Commonthelth of Independent Countries), a session of the Permanent Commission on Defense and Security dealing with the questions of defence and safety will be held from the first to the third of October. Session was the part of International conference on Qulity Legislation of the CIS in the Military Questions and Peacekeeping, organized by the International Federation on Peace and Conciliation, Center for Political and International Studies in cooperation with Geneva Center for Democracy Control on Armed Forces and St. Petersburg Council on Peace and Conciliation.

The main point of the conference is to discuss the draft CIS model law, “On Peacekeeping Operations on CIS”.This bill defines the basic forms and order of participation for peace keeping operations and the need for regulating and settling local and regional conflicts. The session of the CIS Permanent Commission will continue in close cooperation with international and Russian experts. Among participats was the Special Representative of the General Secretary of the UN in Georgia Ambassador Heidy Tagliavini and William Frederic van Ekelen, the Chairman of the Foundation Council of the Center for European Security Studies (CESS), and former Minister of Defence of the Netherlands, Phillip Flury, Deputy Director of the Geneva Center for Democracy Control on Armed Forces. Also featured will be international experts from USA, Italy, Great Britain, while Russia will be represented by Army General Vladimir Yakovlev, Chief of the Staff for CIS Military Cooperation  and Vladimir Petrovsky, Professor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relatons. Alexander Nikitin, Vera Brovkina and Mikhail Lebedev from the International Federation on Peace and Conciliation also took part at conference.

Meeting has become very important, not only for the member states of the CIS and their citizens, but also for the rest of the world. Participant discussed many topics on conflict resolution in CIS and international expirience in peacekeeping. The CIS Defense and Security Permanent Commission confirm text of the Model law and recommended it to CIS Interparliament Assembly Plenal Sesion to aprove it on it becoming meeting on November.

During the Conference was spesial meeting of parliaments representatives and foreign experts with leaders of International Federation on Peace and Conciliations and NGO of St. Petersburg.

Text of the Model law and all papers presented to conferece will be published by International Federation on Peace and Conciliations and Center for Political and International Studies by the end of this year.