Int'l confernce 'Refugees in Muslim world' in due Ashgabat

An international conference, 'Refugees in the Muslim world' will be held in Ashgabat on May 10 -11 by the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said.

The conference will bring together over 500 representatives from all OIC member countries.

The OIC (previous name - Organisation of the Islamic Conference) is the largest Muslim international organisation and includes 57 countries with a population of about 1.2 billion people. The headquarters is located in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

Representatives of 40 international and regional organisations, as well as observers from 21 countries are expected to attend the forum in Ashgabat. Delegations from the U.S., the Russian Federation, China, Australia and EU countries are among them.

The final document relating to the Ashgabat Declaration and Plan of Action for Refugees in the Muslim world is expected to be adopted following the conference.

The agenda of the forum ensures the holding of a separate session dedicated to Turkemenistan's work experience. About 3318 stateless people residing in Turkmenistan received Turkmen citizenship upon President Berdimuhamedov's decree last year.

"This important work is underway," the foreign ministry said. "It is unprecedented not only in Central Asia, but also in the CIS region."

Article 11 of the Turkmen Constitutional Law on 'Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality' says that Turkmenistan joins into the main international legal acts, ensuring the rights of refugees and displaced and internally displaced persons. It also supports the efforts of the countries and the international community to assist countries affected by wars, conflicts, natural disasters, catastrophes, epidemics and their consequences.

The law on 'Refugees' was adopted in Turkmenistan in 1997. The country joined the UN Convention of 1951 'Status of Refugees' and the Protocol of 1967 relating to the Status of Refugees, the UN Convention 'Status of Stateless Persons' of 1954 and the UN Convention of 1961 "Reduction the number of stateless people".

Turkmenistan became a member of the Executive Committee of the programme of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in April 2011. The office started operating in Turkmenistan in 1995. Its main purpose was to assist the Turkmen government in assisting refugees from Tajikistan, who were forced to leave their country because of the events in the early 1990s.


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