Rustam Shokhmurod: CSTO Parliamentary Assembly plays a special role in creating the legal conditions for the functioning of the collective security system

“Expansion of the inter-parliamentary cooperation within the framework of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and the approximation and harmonization of the main provisions of national regulatory acts of the CSTO States have been declared the main priorities of Tajikistan’s presidency in the CSTO,” said Rustam Shokhmurod, Chairman of the Committee on Law Enforcement, Defence and Security of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan, Chairman of the Coordination Council of Chairpersons of Committees (Commissions) on Defence and Security of the Parliaments of the CSTO Member States, during the field session of the CSTO PA Council in Dushanbe on July 1.
He spoke about the progress of implementation of the CSTO PA model regulatory acts into the national legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.
According to Rustam Shokhmurod, the republic’s parliament pays special attention to the model acts in the area of ensuring national security of the CSTO Member States, combating terrorism and extremism, drug and precursor trafficking, transnational crime and corruption.
For instance, the parliament of the Republic of Tajikistan has recently adopted a law on combating terrorism and before that – on combating extremism.
Relevant working groups are finalizing new drafts of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Code of Execution of Criminal Penalties of the Republic of Tajikistan, which take into account recommendations to improve the criminal legislation of the CSTO Member States on combating information-related offences and to harmonize national penal legislation of the CSTO Member States.
Taking into account the model law On Countering Terrorism and Extremism Through Information, as well as Recommendations on the Improvement of the CSTO Member States’ Criminal Legislation in the Area of Countering Information-Related Offences, relevant additions were made to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan in 2019, providing for liability for violating national legal requirements concerning SIM card activation.
A new anti-corruption law was adopted in 2020, also taking into account CSTO recommendations.
Improving legislation on counteracting the proliferation of drugs and precursors is an urgent parliamentary task. In 2021, a group of members of the Majlisi Oli and deputies from the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the Republic of Tajikistan drafted a new version of the law on narcotic psychotropic substances and their precursors and submitted it for consideration. The draft also takes into account CSTO recommendations.
Particular attention is being paid to implementing the Recommendations on the Harmonization of the CSTO Member States’ Legislation on the Issues of Refugees and Asylum Seekers and the Recommendations on the Creation of a Positive Image of Migrant Workers in the CSTO Member States.
The Refugee Law of the Republic of Tajikistan contains the main provisions of the said recommendations, while the Recommendations on the Creation of a Positive Image of Migrant Workers are taken into account in the new draft law on migration currently under government review.
Rustam Shokhmurod emphasized that the Parliament of the Republic of Tajikistan pays special attention to the preservation and protection of the historical truth in the patriotic education of the youth in line with the recommendation to include lessons on historical memory into the school curriculum of the CSTO Member States to educate the young generation by the example of the heroic deeds of the peoples achieving the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
The curriculum of secondary general schools in the Republic of Tajikistan includes such lessons as Historical Memory, The Great Victory of 1941–1945 and The Multinational Contribution of the USSR in the Fight against Fascism. In addition, a special course on the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 has been introduced in regular secondary schools.