Model Legislation Regulating Cross-Border Movement of Troops

We would like to continue presenting the CSTO PA model legislation with the case of Recommendations on Amending and Extending the CSTO Member States’ National Legislation Due to the Implementation of the Agreement on the Status of Forces and Assets of the CSTO Collective Security System Regarding Border and Customs Formalities and Provision of Formations’ Transit Through the Territory of the CSTO Member States.
As its name suggests, it concerns border crossing and customs procedures for military units of the Organization’s Member States when crossing a border, for example, to go to a place of exercises, as well as when it is necessary to move troops in case of a complication or aggravation of the situation in the CSTO area of responsibility.
On December 10, 2010, the Agreement on the Status of Forces and Assets of the CSTO Collective Security System was signed in Moscow.
At the same time, all Organization’s Member States that signed the Agreement conducted the necessary procedures of its ratification and as a result the following documents were adopted:
Law of the Republic of Armenia No. AZHV-288-N of November 14, 2011;
Law of the Republic of Belarus No. 311-З of November 24, 2011;
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 1-V of March 15, 2012;
Law of the Kyrgyz Republic No. 24 of March 17, 2012;
Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 209-FZ of December 1, 2012;
Resolution of the Assembly of Representatives of the Supreme Assembly of the Republic of Tajikistan No. 754 of May 11, 2012.
In general, the comparative legal analysis of the national legislation of the CSTO Member States showed that the minimum requirements for the implementation of the Agreement are fulfilled in strict accordance with the norms and principles of international law.
However, at the time of the analysis, the CSTO Member States’ national legislation in the reviewed area of legal relations was deemed insufficient, as it did not contain provisions directly regulating the issues of admission of forces and assets of the collective security system to the territory of the receiving state, their stay in this territory, transit or performance of other tasks.
In addition, an analysis of the law-enforcement practice also showed that, despite the Agreement, decisions on the admission to (or transit through) the territory of a CSTO Member State of forces and assets of the collective security system, for example, to participate in various exercises under the auspices of the CSTO, were made as one-time administrative acts, usually by heads of states or governments of the CSTO Member States.
The Recommendations are based on the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Organization’s Member States:
    inviolability of the sovereignty and respect for the territorial integrity of the CSTO Member States;
    precedence of the international agreements ratified according to the procedure established for the CSTO Member States over the acts of national legislation;
    observance by the command and personnel of the collective security forces and assets of the principles and norms of international, primarily humanitarian, law and the national legislation of the CSTO Member State on the territory of which the collective security forces and assets are temporarily deployed and/or through the territory of which their transit is carried out;
    respect for the legal status of persons belonging to the forces and assets of the collective security system, full guarantee of their rights and freedoms in accordance with the norms of international law;
    non-interference in the internal affairs of the receiving CSTO Member State, abstention from any actions incompatible with the provisions of the Agreement, non-participation in political activities and conflicts on the territory of this state, except for the performance of the set tasks;
    respect for the rights, freedoms and lawful interests of citizens, as well as foreigners and stateless persons legally staying in a CSTO Member State;
    absence of claims on the part of members of the units temporarily staying in the territory of a CSTO Member State to acquire any rights to permanent residence in its territory;
    harmonization of the CSTO Member States’ legislation to ensure its most complete and comprehensive approximation with the provisions of the Agreement and to establish a unified organizational and legal mechanism of its enforcement.
The present Recommendations are developed with due regard to the provisions of international legal acts; Model Law On the Order of Admission and Conditions of Stay on the Territory of a CSTO Member State of Military Units of Other CSTO Member States adopted at a meeting of the members of the IPA CIS Council, members of the Collective Security Treaty on March 25, 2002 (amended and extended as of November 2007); the Agreement on the CSTO Member States’ Cooperation in Transportation of Military and Other Personnel, Their Personal Chattel as well as Military Goods; provisions of the CSTO Collective Security Strategy; and taking into account the norms of national legislative acts of the CSTO Member States regulating border crossing and customs procedures for forces and assets of the collective security system and their transit through the territory of the said states.
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