The ILO SafeWork Programme, the ILO Regional Office for the Arab States in Beirut (Lebanon) and CIS will held, on 21 and 22 November 2007, in Damascus (Syria), a Regional Meeting of CIS national and collaboration Centres for Arab States. The meeting is organized in collaboration with the Arab Labour Organization in Damascus, which became a Regional CIS Centre in 2004.

The main objective of this meeting is to enhance the effectiveness of the Centres' Network of Arab States and create new CIS Centres in countries where they do not exist. It is also to provide basic guidance for the creation of Internet sites for the participating institutions that do not have one yet.

This meeting will be preceded by a a 3-day (18-20 November) Inter-regional Meeting of the Tripartite Arab States, on the subject of occupational safety and health (OSH), which will also be held in Damascus. This event will bring together representatives governments and of employers' and workers' organizations of the 18 participating countries: Algeria, the Palestinian Authority, Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan , Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. Topics to be covered include the development of national OSH programmes and action plans for the future, and the improvement of the constituents' capacity to access, produce, exchange and disseminate information on OSH.

For more information, please see the respective concept paper prepared for the Meeting of the Tripartite Arab States and for the CIS Regional Meeting for Arab States.