OSCE Chairman welcomes appointment of new head of Organization's human rights body

HELSINKI, 15 May 2008 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, welcomed today the decision by the OSCE Ministerial Council to appoint Janez Lenarcic of Slovenia as the head of the Organization's human rights body.

Lenarcic will assume his new function as Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 1 July for a three-year term. He replaces Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria, who has headed the ODIHR for more than five years.

"I thank Ambassador Strohal for his strong contribution to the development of the ODIHR, and look forward to working with Ambassador Lenarcic to intensify further the Organization's human rights work," said Minister Stubb.

He added that the appointment will allow the ODIHR to continue its important work under competent leadership without a hiatus.

Lenarcic, born in Ljubljana in 1967, has an extensive background in OSCE affairs. He was the Slovenian Ambassador to the OSCE from 2003 to 2006. In 2005, when Slovenia held the OSCE's rotating Chairmanship, he chaired the Permanent Council, the Organization's regular political decision-making body. He has also served as State Secretary and Diplomatic Adviser in the office of the Slovenian Prime Minister and in the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York.