OSCE Chair brings Organization’s proposals for support to Ukraine PM Azarov

VIENNA / DAVOS, 24 January 2014 - OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter and Ukraine Prime Minister Mykola Azarov have today discussed ways the Organization could help to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.

In a meeting on the margins of the Davos World Economic Forum, Burkhalter proposed that the OSCE, of which Ukraine is a member, could offer its expertise to facilitate dialogue between the government and opposition, and offered  a range of possible activities over the mid- to long-term, such as election support. At the same time, Burkhalter welcomed the request sent to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) by the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for a review of the compatibility of the new laws with Ukraine’s OSCE commitments.