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OSCE Parliamentary Assemblyâ€™s Annual Session kicks off in Astana

29 June 2008 09:16 (UTC +04:00)

APA reports that the meeting for the first time in Central Asia, almost 270 Members of Parliaments from most of the 56 OSCE states are expected to participate in the Assemblyâ€™s 17th Annual Session. Many countries are sending full delegations, including the United States with 17 and Russia with 15 members respectively. The Annual Session will consider a wide range of issues such as water management, trade, combating sexual exploitation of children and violence against women, cyber security and migration. A series of regional issues will also be discussed, such as Afghanistan, Georgia, and Chernobyl. Other issues on the agenda include election observation and human rights issues affecting the OSCE area such as human trafficking. The Annual Session will adopt a final document, called the Astana Declaration, which will include recommendations on these and related issues.
â€œWe in the Parliamentary Assembly look forward to holding a major meeting in Kazakhstan and involving Central Asia fully in all of our activities,â€ said OSCE PA President Goran Lennmarker when announcing the decision to hold the 2008 Annual Session in Kazakhstan.
Elections will be held for new Assembly officers, including a new President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as President Lennmarker has completed two one-year terms.
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, created by the CSCE Summit in Paris in 1990, is the parliamentary dimension of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The OSCE PA primary task is to facilitate inter-parliamentary
dialogue, an important aspect of the overall effort to meet the challenges of democracy throughout the OSCE area.
The Annual Session in Astana is being held at the invitation of the Kazakh Parliament. It follows the 2007 session in Ukraine and precedes the 2009 session in Lithuania.
The Annual Session will take place at the â€œRadisson SASâ€ hotel in Astana and is open to the media. Journalists interested in covering the session should apply for accreditation preferably before 23 June 2008. But applications will be accepted up until the start of the session.
For journalists not already registered with the Kazakh authorities, applications for accreditation should be directed to Klas Bergman, Director of Communications at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly International Secretariat in Copenhagen, Denmark.