HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States and its supreme organs - The Council of Heads of State and the Council of Heads of Government - caused the need for establishment of a relative structure for supporting its activity. On 16 January 1992 the heads of states adopted the Temporal provisions on the Working Group for Organizational and Technical Preparation and Conduct of the Council of Heads of State and the Council of Heads of Government. Its activity was headed by a Coordinator, appointed by the Council of Heads of State. The Belarusian delegation proposed for this post Mr. Ivan M. Korotchenya, member of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus. In accordance with the provisions of the Viskuli Agreement on Establishment of the CIS, which stipulated the location of its coordinating structures in Belarus capital, Minsk became the place of the Working Group’s residence.

Afterwards, in view of development of integration processes in the Commonwealth, establishment of the organs of sectoral cooperation, establishment of contacts with international organizations, need for elaboration of recommendations on implementation of decisions of supreme organs of the Commonwealth in May 1993 the Working Group was transformed into the CIS Executive Secretariat. It was led by the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth, who was given the right to represent the Commonwealth in its relations with international organizations.

On 2 April 1999 the Council of Heads of State adopted the Decision on reorganization of the Secretariat into the CIS Executive Committee.

Up till 29 April 1998 Mr. Ivan Korotchenya had been the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth. He was substituted by Mr. Boris Berezovsky.

On 2 April 1999 by the Decision of the Council of Heads of State Mr. Yuri Yarov was appointed as the Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth.

The leading posts of the Executive Committee are occupied by the representatives of the member states of the Commonwealth, while the staff is mainly composed of Belarusian nationals.

In the head-quarters work permanent and plenipotentiary representatives to the statutory and other organs of the Commonwealth. Through them the Committee interacts with CIS states on various aspects of cooperation. They take part in organization of consultations, expertizing documents, compiling and discussing agendas of meetings of CIS sectoral organs, elaboration of the most acceptable forms and methods of interaction.

Since the moment of establishment of the Commonwealth there have been prepared and conducted 25 meetings of the Council of Heads of State and 33 meetings of the Council of Heads of Government, which resulted in adoption of 1052 documents.

Here in the head-quarters we pay particular attention to organization of preparation of draft documents for consideration at the meetings of statutory organs of the Commonwealth. With this aim we hold regular meetings of experts and plenipotentiary representatives of states, in the course of which they elaborate, as a rule, all the draft documents.

One of the main field of the Committee’s activity is interaction with member states, statutory and sectoral organs of the Commonwealth. At present over 60 organs of sectoral cooperation are being active, in many countries CIS matters- relating bodies are established.

The Executive Committee works in close contact with the Economic Council, Council of Foreign Ministers, Council of Defense Ministers, Council of Border Troops Commanders, Secretariat of the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly, Interstate Committee for Statistics, Counsel of Railway Transport Ministers and other organs.

Great importance is given to the Committee’s activity in assisting the exchange of information between the states, statutory and sectoral organs of the Commonwealth. In the CIS head-quarters there exists the integrated data base of multilateral agreements between the Commonwealth states, which comprises over 3000 full text documents.

There have been created the conditions for operative exchange of information through the open communication channels between the CIS Executive Committee and other sectoral organs of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth’s information systems are being gradually integrated into the European and world-wide information space through Internet.

The Executive Committee edits the “Sodruzhestvo” Information Herald of the Council of Heads of State and the Council of Heads of Government, news letters, books on various topics and other analytical, reference and information materials.

One of the major directions of the Committee’s activity is ensuring interaction between the CIS and international organizations.

On 5 May 1994 the Agreement on cooperation with the UNCTAD Secretariat.

The geographical range of cooperation between the CIS and international organization is constantly expanding. Working contacts are established with such authoritative organizations as the International Labor Organization, World Health Organization, UN High Commissioner on Refugees, European Union.

On 5 June 1996 the Agreements on cooperation with the Secretariat of the UN ECE were signed.

The CIS head-quarters in Minsk was visited by Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary-General - 1994, Mr. Ives Berthelot, Executive Secretary of the UN ECE, Mr.Wilhelm Hoynck, Secretary-General of the OSCE -1994, Mr. Arpad Bogsch, Director General of WIPO - 1994, Mr. Giankarlo Aragona, OSCE Secretary-General - 1996, Mr. Par Steinback, Secretary-general of the Northern Council - 1996, Mr. Jean-Paul Carteron, President of the Crans-Montana Forum -1997.

In their turn the representatives of the CIS Executive Committee take part in major conferences and forums, held by the UN, EU, OSCE, UN ECE, ESCAP, UNESCO, FAO, OAS, UNHCR and other international organizations.

On 24 March 1994 the CIS was granted the observer status in the UN General Assembly. On 3 August 1994 The CIS Charter was registered by the UN Secretariat as a multilateral agreement in accordance with Article 102 of the UN Charter.

The closest and most fruitful links have been established with the European Commission, OSCE Secretariat. In the framework of the EU TACIS Program a project on establishment of exchange of legal, economic and other kinds of information has been developed.

Various types of international conferences, forums, symposia, meetings are being regularly held. They are initiated both by the Executive Committee and upon the request of representatives of governmental bodies and institutions, which are always rendered assistance in this matter.