Bureau of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee speaks in Vienna

COPENHAGEN, 23 October 2013 – Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions Isabel Santos (Chair), Mehmet Sevki Kulkuloglu (Vice Chair), and Gordana Comic (Rapporteur), spoke Tuesday at the Human Dimension Committee in Vienna. The three parliamentarians were there to present to the OSCE governmental side the work of the OSCE PA on a range of human dimension issues.

The three committee members addressed various challenges faced across the OSCE area in the human dimension and stressed the OSCE PA's continued commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms. Chairwoman Isabel Santos of Portugal highlighted the importance of parliamentary dialogue on human dimension commitments and outlined the PA's objective in supporting OSCE field operations. Santos also called for increased co-operation with civil society. An advocate for rule of law, Santos drew the Committee's attention to the resettlement issue in the closing of Guantanamo.

Vice-Chair Kulkuloglu of Turkey focused particularly on freedom of the media. He expressed his support for the draft Ministerial Resolution of the protection of journalists and also drew attention to the spirit of co-operation between the OSCE PA and the Office of Dunja Mijatovic, Representative on Freedom of the Media. The Turkish lawmaker also called for the urgent release of journalists, authors and publishers who have been imprisoned across the OSCE area on dubious charges.

Rapporteur Gordana Comic of Serbia expressed her concern for human dimension commitments in the OSCE, in particular the fight against terrorism and protection of human rights, including when dealing with migration issues. The Rapporteur expressed her disappointment on the apparent downward trend regarding OSCE field operations.

Comic said: "We have seen key missions like the OSCE Office in Minsk and the Mission to Georgia closed. And these missions were closed at key points in the human dimension mandate. We have seen the OSCE Office in Baku downgraded to a Project Co-ordinator, thereby reducing its political mandate to monitor and report on commitments in the human dimension."

The OSCE PA has passed various resolutions on increased support of field operations, and has repeatedly called for the re-opening of the OSCE missions in Georgia and Belarus. This is the first time all three Bureau members of the OSCE PA's human rights Committee address the Human Dimension Committee of the governmental side in Vienna, in an effort to improve the quality and substance of the Ministerial decisions in Kyiv in December.

This is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is comprised of 323 parliamentarians from 57 countries spanning, Europe, Central Asia and North America. The Assembly provides a forum for parliamentary diplomacy, monitors elections, and strengthens international cooperation to uphold commitments on political, security, economic, environmental and human rights issues.