Kazakh Senator spoke at PACE Bureau in Paris

ASTANA. March 19. KAZINFORM. Annual report on the progress of democratic reforms in Kazakhstan was one of the key issues on the agenda of the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe meeting recently held in Paris; Kazinform refers to the press service of the Kazakhstan's Senate.

The report is presented annually as per the Cooperation Agreement between the Parliament of Kazakhstan and the PACE as of April 2004. The head of Kazakhstan?s delegation ? Senate Vice Speaker Alexander Sudyin spoke at the meeting and told about the main provisions of ?Path to Europe? government program. He informed the Bureau members of the package of documents adopted by the Parliament to improve national legislation with the purpose of further liberalization of the sociopolitical life and development of democratic institutes. Therefore the Parliament ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, adopted amendments to the laws ?On Election?, ?On Political Parties?, ?On Mass Media?, and a legal framework of local public management and local self-government. The issue of holding a visiting session of the PACE Political Committee in Astana in May 2009 was also considered during the meeting. On behalf of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Senate Chairman, Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Vise Speaker Alexander Sudyin invited UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura and PACE Chairman Luis Maria de Puig to take part in the third religious summit which will take place on July 1-2 in Astana.