Disaster Law Promoters conducted their first meeting
The first meeting of the “Coordination Group on Disaster Law Promotion in Tajikistan” was held on April 10, 2012 in Dushanbe to introduce new members of the group from related governmental agencies to the IFRC recommendations on Disaster Laws, the importance of this issue, as well as to discuss the Coordination Group’s further actions and steps.
The “Coordination Group” is established with the key aim to promote the necessity of improving Tajikistan legislation in order to conform them with IFRC recommendation, new decrees and new amendments in the laws related to the acceptance and dissemination of humanitarian assistance and further promotion of the Disaster Law implementation in Tajikistan.

The representatives of the following agencies are the members of the group: CoES, State Reserves Agency, Ministry of Transport, Customs Service, Ministry of Justice, Border Forces, Ministry of Health, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RCST and IFRC Country Representation.
The role of the established “Coordination Group”, its terms of references, name, as well as working plan and next steps were discussed in the meeting as well. The participants actively discussed existing laws and rules of international humanitarian assistance in Tajikistan, gaps and necessary steps towards legal base improvement.
Mr. Shamsuddin Muhuddinov, IFRC DM Programmes Manager in Tajikistan noted the importance of conformity of laws to the international standards in nation-wide emergency situations. Mr. Muhuddinov encouraged the participants to review the national legislation in their sphere of activity and expressed the readiness that in its turn, RC Movement is ready to support and to share the experience in developing and promoting the humanitarian laws.

In general, the participants agreed that there are some duplication in the functions of the governmental agencies and some obscurity in the matter of acceptance, dissemination and control of international humanitarian aid, foreign rescuers, the technology they bring, the medicines they bring, etc.
Mr. Abdulfattoh Shafiev, Disaster Law Promoter at IFRC Country Representation in Tajikistan reviewed the facts and stats of disasters at 2011, introduced the participants with IFRC Disaster Law researches and recommendations (the guideline and the model act), as well as informed them on the latest success stories from other countries.

The participants were introduced as well to the background of Disaster Law Promotion in Tajikistan by Mr. Shuhrat Sangov, RCST Head of DM Department.
Lt-Colonel Boborajab Saidov, head of legal division at the Interior Ministry, suggested to officially asking the Government for establishing an official Working Group to learn the Model Act and local legislation for the possible design of new law. Mr. Rustam Abdusalomov, deputy head of legal department at Customs Service, asked to give a lecture on the importance of the issue to his colleagues at the Customs Service. Mr. Iskandar Sulaymonov from the Border Forces suggested to think on the preparation of a unite database of needs during a disaster. He said the database could be online in order to avoid the duplication in provision of aid by the international donors.
The participants agreed to review the preliminary results of Tajikistan legislation conformity to IDRL conducted by UN DRMP, especially the points related to their direct job and to share the results of the review with other members of group for the further possible actions.






