Kazakhstan submitted application for full membership in Venice Commission

Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yerzhan Kazykhanov met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland to submit the application for full membership in the Venice Commission, Tengrinews.kz reports. The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. Established in 1990, the commission has played a leading role in the adoption of constitutions that conform to the standards of Europe's constitutional heritage. Initially conceived as a tool for emergency constitutional engineering, the commission has become an internationally recognised independent legal think-tank. Today it contributes to the dissemination of the European constitutional heritage, based on the continent's fundamental legal values while continuing to provide “constitutional first-aid” to individual states. The Venice Commission also plays a unique and unrivalled role in crisis management and conflict prevention through constitution building and advice. All Council of Europe member states are members of the Venice Commission; in addition, Kyrgyzstan joined the commission in 2004, Chile in 2005, the Republic of Korea in 2006, Morocco and Algeria in 2007, Israel in 2008, Peru and Brazil in 2009 and Tunisia and Mexico in 2010. The Commission thus has 57 full members in all. Belarus is associate member, while Argentina, Canada, the Holy See, Japan, Kazakhstan, the United States and Uruguay are observers. South Africa and Palestinian National Authority have a special co-operation status similar to that of the observers. The European Commission and OSCE/ODIHR participate in plenary sessions of the Commission.