rights and builds upon CSCE/OSCE commitments.14 It also includes Chapters on Institutional Framework (which includes sections on Policy, Legislation, and Administration), on Operational Framework, and on Co-operation. The most significant OSCE contribution is in the Chapter on Prevention, where the CIS states strengthen their commitment to using OSCE mechanisms and instruments in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention and conflict resolution. The participants also worked out a set of working definitions to systematise the types of flows currently observed in the region. Although the CIS Conference was an intergovernmental process, the views and ideas of the nongovernmental organisations and other independent actors were taken into account. The Secretariat of the Conference held four meetings with NGOs (in Washington, Tbilisi, Moscow, and Geneva) and two meetings with representatives of the academic community (in Washington in Paris) to discuss the Conference process. In addition, NGOs were invited to submit their comments on drafts of the Programme of Action. Many of these comments found reflection in the final version of the Programme of Action. Regional conferences on migration and refugee matters have taken place in other parts of the world. Examples of such endeavours are the Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) for Indo-Chinese Refugees and the International Conference on Central American Refugees (CIREFCA) that took place in the 1980s. The difference between those Conferences and the CIS Migration Conference is that the former took place in response to large-scale humanitarian crises that already occurred, while the latter places strong emphasis on prevention for situations that could lead to involuntary population displacements. Because of prevention is one of the objectives of the CIS Conference process, the OSCE engagement in the process was critical. In the future OSCE can still play an important part in early warning and prevention. And, because the process of the implementation of the Programme of Action is about to begin and political support for the process is still crucial, OSCE will need to be engaged in the followup to the Conference. TABLE 1 TEN LARGEST POPULATION SHIFTS WITHIN AND FROM THE FORMER SOVIET UNION SINCE 1989 Direction Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation Displaced inside of Tajikistan Chechnya to the Russian Federation Kazakhstan to Germany Uzbekistan to the Russian Federation Tajikistan to the Russian Federation Azerbaijan to Armenia Kyrgyzstan to the Russian Federation Abkhazia to Georgia Number 684,000 614,000 600,000 487,000 480,000 400,000 300,000 299,000 296,000 273,000 14For example, Principle 10(a) of the CIS Conference Programme of Action states that "The implementation of commitments related to the rule of law; democracy and human rights are of legitimate and common concern to all States." An explicit commitment to democracy reinforces and strengthens the commitments of the CSCE Helsinki Document of 1992. OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3 37