DUSHANBE, June 11, 2015, Asia-Plus – Rahmatillo Zoyirov, the elder of the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDP), participated in a meeting of the Socialist International (SI) Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea that took place in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on June 8-9.

The meeting was hosted by the SI member party in Armenia, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Socialist Party.

SDP leader writes on his Facebook page that he delivered a report on the situation in Tajikistan.

In his report, Zoyirov reportedly touched upon issues related to election and combating corruption.

Zoyirov says representatives of twenty countries, including, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and others, participated in the meeting.

According to the SI’s website, the meeting focused on the three themes on the agenda, namely the regional priorities of strengthening and extending democracy, securing peace and the resolution of conflicts, and advancing the social democratic agenda.

One particular area in which members of the SI were taking the lead was in the fight against corruption, which must be eliminated with the help of reinforced institutions, a strong and independent judiciary and a clear and transparent framework for the pursuit and eradication of financial misconduct.

At the conclusion of the meeting, members of the committee adopted a declaration.

The Socialist International (SI) is a worldwide association of political parties most of which seek to establish democratic socialism.  It consists mostly of democratic socialist, social democratic and labor political parties and other organizations.

Although formed in 1951 as a successor to the Labor and Socialist International it has antecedents to the late nineteenth century.  Initially dominated by parties from Western Europe, it has grown to include more than 160 member parties from more than 100 countries.

Founded in 2002, the Social-Democratic Party was registered on December 20, 2002.  It was originally registered as the Party of Justice and Development on February 5, 1999.  Tajikistan''s Ministry of Justice requested the same year that the Supreme Court ban the party''s activities and its registration was canceled.  The party re-emerged and was registered under the name of the Social-Democratic Party in late 2002.  Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party is Rahmatillo Zoyirov and the party reportedly has more than 8,000 members.