OSCE Court’s President and Vice-President meet with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Leaders

President Decaux and Vice-President Kourula of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, presented the Court and its features at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s (PA) International Secretariat in Copenhagen on 25 April.

Attendees included President of the OSCE PA, Margareta Cederfelt, Vice-Chair of the OSCE PA Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Costel Neculai Dunava, as well as OSCE PA Secretary General, Roberto Montella, OSCE PA Deputy Secretary General, Gustavo Pallares, and several other PA staff.

President Decaux underscored that the OSCE Court is a treaty-based institution created within the OSCE, offering conciliation and arbitration as a flexible and efficient means of peaceful dispute settlement between States. To date, 34 of 57 OSCE participating States have ratified the Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration. While participating States have the possibility to open, upon agreement, conciliation and arbitration procedures, the current Bureau has made efforts to encourage further accessions to the Convention which would give a positive signal towards the peaceful settlement of disputes to which participating States have committed.

Questions raised during the presentation included the Court’s competence. Vice-President Kourula explained that it was limited to inter-state disputes and did not include private or civil society actors, unlike some other jurisdictions. Nevertheless, the Court can deal with a large array of subject-matters across a variety of disputes, including topics like territorial integrity.

The Vice-President gave further examples of cases where the Court could have been involved and explained the Court’s value in providing advisory opinions on an ad hoc basis to the OSCE and its institutions. This includes the Court’s wide pool of state-appointed experts in international law and diplomats among its members.

The meeting concluded with proposals on how to further enhance co-operation between the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.