OSCE Chairperson meets Russian human rights officials, civil society and think tanks, stresses need to improve implementation of human dimension commitments

MOSCOW, 3 February 2011 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis, stressed the need to improve the implementation of human rights commitments during meetings today in Moscow with the Chairperson of the Human Rights Council of the Russian Federation, as well as with representatives of think tanks and civil society.

“The human dimension has equal importance in the work of the OSCE, together with the politico-military and economic and environmental dimensions,” Ažubalis said. “Significantly improving the implementation of human rights commitments in all OSCE participating States, with a special focus on media freedom and promoting tolerance through education, is a key priority of the 2011 Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship.”

During his visit Ažubalis met Vladimir Lukin, the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation; Mikhail Fedotov, the Chairperson of the Council on civil society development and human rights under the President of the Russian Federation; experts from Carnegie Moscow Centre and activists from the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Memorial Centre for Human Rights, the “For human rights” movement and from the Sakharov Centre. He encouraged the civil society representatives to continue their active engagement in assisting OSCE participating States to adhere to OSCE human rights standards.

He emphasized that civil society involvement is an important aspect of the Organization’s work, adding that it helps the OSCE to promote an open and constructive dialogue among authorities, non-governmental organizations and experts.

“The protection and promotion of civil, political, economic, cultural and other rights and freedoms are commitments that all OSCE States have undertaken in Helsinki, Paris, Istanbul and again last December at the OSCE Summit in Astana,” Ažubalis said. “Open and unrestricted participation of human rights activists in the political life of a country is a hallmark of a transparent and genuine democracy.”

The Lithuanian Chairmanship will work to promote freedom of the media and democratic election processes in line with the Copenhagen principles, he said.

“We will support the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media in fulfilling the mandate the 56 OSCE participating States have given them.”

The Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship will also work to raise the role of national human rights institutions in the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, he said, adding he hoped that Ombudsman Lukin would agree to come to an OSCE event in Vienna and share his organization’s experience with other OSCE participating States. The Minister also invited Fedotov to the OSCE Chairmanship conference on the safety of journalists, to be held in Vilnius in June.

Today’s meetings concluded Ažubalis’ visit to Moscow, his first visit to an OSCE participating State as the Organization’s Chairperson.