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OSCE human rights conference ends with call for redoubled efforts to eradicate human rights violations
WARSAW 19 September 2002
WARSAW, 19 September 2002 - The OSCE's annual human rights conference ended today with a strong call on governments to redouble efforts to eradicate human rights violations and push forward democratic reform in the OSCE area spanning from North America to Central Asia.
"True democracy is more than just organizing elections once in a while", said Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann, the outgoing Director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
"Too often, we see mere appearances of democracy, through elections or adopting new laws, while the fundamental understanding - that democracy actually means credible checks and balances, social and ethnic inclusiveness, a truly independent judiciary and an active and participatory civil society - is still missing."
In his closing speech, the ODIHR Director stressed that an effective fight against terrorism requires a functioning and fair system of rule of law. He also said that much more needs to be done to combat discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons as well as women. "For many of these groups, the situation has not improved over the past years - on the contrary, it may have worsened and this is happening across the whole OSCE area.
Commenting on incidents of involvement of international field mission personnel in trafficking in human beings, Ambassador Stoudmann called on the OSCE countries not to close their eyes, but to hold their citizens accountable for any involvement in criminal activities in their mission area: "Training and codes of conduct are important, but without real accountability the international efforts to combat trafficking will not be credible."
With more than 700 government representatives, international experts and human rights activists from 55 OSCE countries, this year's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting was the largest human rights conference ever organized by the OSCE and the biggest such meeting in Europe. During the past two weeks, the conference reviewed the progress the OSCE participating States have made in implementing their human rights commitments.
"True democracy is more than just organizing elections once in a while", said Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann, the outgoing Director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
"Too often, we see mere appearances of democracy, through elections or adopting new laws, while the fundamental understanding - that democracy actually means credible checks and balances, social and ethnic inclusiveness, a truly independent judiciary and an active and participatory civil society - is still missing."
In his closing speech, the ODIHR Director stressed that an effective fight against terrorism requires a functioning and fair system of rule of law. He also said that much more needs to be done to combat discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons as well as women. "For many of these groups, the situation has not improved over the past years - on the contrary, it may have worsened and this is happening across the whole OSCE area.
Commenting on incidents of involvement of international field mission personnel in trafficking in human beings, Ambassador Stoudmann called on the OSCE countries not to close their eyes, but to hold their citizens accountable for any involvement in criminal activities in their mission area: "Training and codes of conduct are important, but without real accountability the international efforts to combat trafficking will not be credible."
With more than 700 government representatives, international experts and human rights activists from 55 OSCE countries, this year's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting was the largest human rights conference ever organized by the OSCE and the biggest such meeting in Europe. During the past two weeks, the conference reviewed the progress the OSCE participating States have made in implementing their human rights commitments.