OSCE holds training course on legislative drafting in Turkmenistan

ASHGABAT, 23 December 2011 – Legal experts from the Justice Ministry, the Institute of State and Law and the National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights (NIDHR) under the President of Turkmenistan took part in an OSCE-supported seminar on legislative drafting which concluded in Ashgabat today.

Organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat in co-operation with the NIDHR, the five-day course aimed to provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the law-making process and to further advance their legislative drafting skills.

The course addressed a wide scope of issues, ranging from the concept, main principles and stages of the law-making process to legislative techniques and rules for drafting legal texts. The seminar participants discussed existing schools of legislative techniques and their applicability in Turkmenistan, and exchanged views on the role of the media, lobbyism and public participation in the law-making process. Special emphasis was placed on the concept, principles and forms of legislation codification.

“The ongoing large-scale legal reforms in Turkmenistan place a great responsibility on legal drafters who should be highly proficient in legislative techniques and aware of respective international standards and best international practices,” said Ambassador Sergei Belyaev, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

“Last year, the Centre organized similar seminars in co-operation with the Parliament, and this year we decided to replicate this activity targeting legal officers from other institutions involved in the law-making process. We believe these seminars will contribute to the country’s efforts to successfully implement the reform process”.

As part of the project, the Centre in co-operation with expert Daniil Chukhvichev from the Russian Federation, developed the “Guidelines on legislative drafting skills” and presented them in the Mejlis (Parliament).

“This seminar and the publication of the guidelines help further consolidate the practical work of law drafters and conclusions of legal researchers,” said Chukhvichev who also led the seminar. “The interest of the participants in the theoretical basis of law-making is evidence of the need to continue this work in the future”.