21 May 2012

The Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) and IOM signed a cooperation agreement in Saint Petersburg on Friday, 18 May.

The agreement, signed by IPA CIS Council Chair Valentina Matvienko and IOM Director General William Lacy Swing at the Tavricheskiy Palace, lays the ground for closer cooperation in the areas of CIS migration policy development and harmonization of CIS migration legislation with international law. 

IOM has actively been working in the CIS region for over fifteen years and enjoys excellent institutional and working relations with IPA CIS member states, which include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine. All of them, with the exception of Russia and Moldova, are also IOM member states.

Specific areas of cooperation include managing temporary and permanent migration flows in the CIS region, human resource development for labour migration, development of measures for controlling irregular migration and information exchange. 

The IPA CIS was set up in1992 serve as an advisory body for the preparation of draft laws and other normative documents of shared interest to the stakeholders. It makes recommendations to the CIS Council of Heads of States and the CIS Council of Heads of Government. Its work focuses on cooperation in the areas of the economy, safety and security, and countering crime, terrorism and illegal drug trafficking.