On October 5, the workshop International and National Human Rights Systems organised by the Turkmen National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights under President of Turkmenistan and UN Development Programme (UNDP) was held in Ashgabat. The seminar brought together the members of the Mejlis, the representatives of the public organisations, international experts, the officials of the governmental agencies, whose activity was related to exercise of constitutional rights and freedoms.

The workshop that will be followed up with the series of consultations provided by the international experts to the national institutes is to be the first important step towards facilitation of the activities carried out by the Intergovernmental commission to ensure the implementation of Turkmenistan’s international commitments established in accordance with the resolution of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.

Opening the seminar UN Resident Representative to Turkmenistan Mr. Richard Young emphasized that those steps proved Turkmenistan’s adherence to steady enhancement of partnership with the United Nations Organisation, the readiness of the Turkmen government to lead a constructive dialogue with the human rights monitoring agencies and further long-term collaboration in the important sphere.

The joint activities on preparation of the national reports to be submitted the UN agencies and implementation of the UN’s recommendations including those in the legislative field are conducted under the new project.

In 2004, Turkmenistan submitted the national reports on implementation of the UN key human rights conventions – Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The specialists engaged in preparing the national reports and the international experts shared experience in working on the documents and collecting the necessary information with the officials of the national ministries and departments – the members of the Intergovernmental commission to ensure the implementation of Turkmenistan’s international commitments. The methods and principles of the preparation of the national reports and the main provisions of the international agreements that Turkmenistan would prepare the nation reports on were presented to the participants.