OSCE PA Annual Session: Migrants’ rights, political prisoners at core of human rights committee resolution

COPENHAGEN, 20 June 2014 – Ensuring the security and human dignity of migrants and openly addressing the issue of political prisoners are among the key recommendations proposed by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions (Third Committee) in its draft resolution for the PA's upcoming Annual Session.

The resolution will be debated and may be amended by parliamentarians, who will soon arrive in Baku, Azerbaijan for the PA's 23rd Annual Session. The Session runs from 28 June to 2 July and will be held under the theme "Helsinki +40: Towards Human Security for All."

In its final form, the resolution will be a core element of the Baku Declaration to be adopted at the Annual Session's conclusion. Nearly 300 MPs will be present to vote on the Declaration, which will contain policy recommendations for the OSCE and its 57 participating States in the fields of political affairs and security, economics, the environment and human rights.

“It is high time for OSCE participating States to prioritize the protection of migrants’ rights, and in particular the rights of labour migrants and asylum-seekers. These segments of society are far too often neglected by national legislation and we must help them to come out of the shadows with human dignity,” said Third Committee Rapporteur Gordana Comic (MP, Serbia).

“We must also finally resolve to address the issue of political prisoners in the OSCE area with openness and candor. While the topic is sensitive, tiptoeing around it fosters a culture of impunity that works against us, and, indeed, the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act,” Comic added.

The Third Committee's draft resolution urges OSCE participating States to “ensure, through national legislation or through legislative reform, if necessary, human dignity and security for all asylum seekers and labour migrants.”

The resolution further calls for protection of labour migrants “regardless of the migrants’ legal status.” It also “strongly condemns acts of hate crime against migrants of any kind” and calls on OSCE participating States to ensure that the crimes are fully investigated and victims protected.

In its nearly two dozen clauses, the draft resolution also takes on the issue of political prisoners.

Specifically, it “endorses” the adoption by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of a resolution that provides concrete criteria for what defines a political prisoner.

With that adoption in October 2012, PACE became the first major interparliamentary organization to approve such a definition.

The Third Committee draft resolution also calls on OSCE participating States to ensure access to justice for those detained and guard against indefinite detention and arduous conditions. It also presents the idea of establishing “a special rapporteur on cases of indefinite detention or lack of rule of law in the OSCE area.”

Among other recommendations, the draft resolution “strongly urges” the OSCE Permanent Council to re-open field missions in Belarus and Georgia and to return the monitoring and reporting mandates to the status of the OSCE field operations in Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

The Baku Declaration will also feature resolutions from the OSCE PA's Committee on Political Affairs and Security (First Committee) and the Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment (Second Committee), as well as more than a dozen supplementary items.

The full text of all draft resolutions and supplementary items, as well as a draft programme for the Annual Session, are available here.

At the close of the Session, the Assembly will hold elections to choose its President, several Vice-Presidents and committee officers.

The Session will be live-streamed on the OSCE PA homepage, www.oscepa.org.

Follow news from the Session on Twitter using the hashtag #BakuAS.

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 56 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.