Ashgabat, 15 September 2016 (nCa) — Turkmenistan adopted Wednesday its new Constitution during the joint session of the Elders Council and the Parliament. The final draft of the Constitution benefited greatly from the consultations with the UN, the OSCE and the German aid society GIZ.
During a short break at the Elders Council session, Ambassador Natalya Drozd, the head of the OSCE centre in Ashgabat addressed a press conference.
Here is the transcript:
Ambassador Drozd, Answering a question by nCa: I would like to congratulate the people of Turkmenistan on the completion of this laborious process. During the last two years enormous and serious work was done. Constitutional Commission and other participants of the constitutional reforms in the country were focused on strengthening the democracy and constitutional law in the country, and they went to great lengths to ensure that this process was completed successfully. The draft of the new version of the Constitution was presented, and then it was put on nationwide discussion. Large number of proposals were received from the population. They were analyzed and today we are in the middle of a historic event. Today, the Constitution was approved by the head of state.
OSCE, the organization which I represent, assists the member-countries (57 countries), including Turkmenistan, in the reforming of national legislation and, of course, in this case the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights prepared its recommendations and comments to the government. And we hope that they were useful.
OSCE and our center are ready to continue to provide full support and assistance on all these issues. And we look forward to further expansion of our cooperation in the framework of our mandate.
TDH: few words about the importance of the implementation of international law into national legislation.
OSCE: We should always keep in mind that it is important to adopt the document. It is important to develop it on the basis of international norms, standards and international practice. But more important is the process of implementation of the adopted law. I hope that the implementation process will be successful as well. We are ready to assist Turkmenistan in this process.
TDH: few words about the prospects of development of cooperation between Turkmenistan and OSCE.
OSCE: The prospects of cooperation between Turkmenistan and our powerful organization OSCE are good. I am proud to say so. We are developing cooperation in three areas, which are determined by our mandate – political, economic and economic-ecological, human dimension. In all three areas we have developed good relationship. We plan to carry out before the end of this year, many events in cooperation with Turkmen partners. /// nCa