THE CIS MIGRATION CONFERENCE: A PROCESS TO ENHANCE STABILITY AND STRENGTHEN COMMITMENT TO DEMOCRACY IN THE OSCE REGION Rapporteur: Vladimir Shkolnikov The magnitudes of population movements in the OSCE region have risen dramatically in the recent years and have reached their post-Second World War peak. In the former Soviet Union alone, the number of persons who changed their place of residence is approximately 9 million, according to a recent United Nations study.13 As shown in the Table 1, these include not only displaced persons fleeing armed conflicts in various parts of the former Soviet Union. Indeed, the array of movements is bewildering - they range from persons leaving ecologically unsafe areas such as the Chernobyl zone; persons belonging to the groups which in the 1940s were en masse forced to leave their places of habitual residence for alleged but unproven crimes against the Soviet regime and until recently prevented from returning - to those who after the break-up of the Soviet Union found themselves outside a country they consider their homeland and are now returning there. In addition, there is a problem of persons who have entered the former Soviet republics illegally, in hope to find their way further westward. Set against the backdrop of the process of nation-building in new states, scarce economic resources, ecological degradation, and nascent institutions, population movements present a serious challenge to the States belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS). Because of the perception that migrants pose strain on resources and because of inadequate institutions that can facilitate the integration of migrants, there is significant risk of violations of human rights of migrants and conflicts between them and the local population. Because the flows are so massive while the resources are so scarce, there is also a potential for serious disputes between sending and receiving states on how the burden for accommodating migrants should be shared between these states. This is why at the 1994 Budapest Summit, the OSCE participating States made a decision to support the preparation of Regional Conference to Address the Problems of Refugees, Displaced Persons, Other Forms of Involuntary Displacement and Returnees in the Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Relevant Neighbouring States which the United Nations General Assembly called upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to organise. The Conference is scheduled for Geneva, May 30-31. According to the Budapest decision, the position on of a migration expert was established at ODIHR, to support the Geneva-based Conference Secretariat, on which, in addition to UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is represented. One of the successes of the preparatory process were two rounds of sub-regional meetings (for Central Asia; Trans-Caucasus, and the group consisting of Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine) which took place in late 1995 and early 1996. During these meetings the participants were able to present their views on problems they face and discuss possible approaches to their solutions. The preparatory process produced a shared understanding of issues and fostered co-operation among CIS countries. Since January 1996, the participants in the preparatory process (which included 48 states and 23 international organisations) convened four times for meetings of the Drafting Committee to produce the Programme of Action (the final document of the Conference). The non-binding Programme of Action reiterates the CIS States commitment to democracy, rule of law, and human 13 Open Media Research Institute, Daily Digest, No. 88, 6 May 1996. 36 OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3