Preparations under way for OSCE PA Annual Session in Baku

BAKU, 25 June 2014 – After two years of advance work and several preparatory visits, the 23^rd OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session in Baku is becoming a reality.

The conference organizing team of the OSCE PA International Secretariat, led by Deputy Secretaries General Gustavo Pallares and Semyon Dzakhaev, has arrived in Baku to finalize preparations for Session, which begins on Saturday, 28 June.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Swiss President and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Didier Burkhalter, Russian State Duma Chair Sergey Naryshkin and Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Deputy Chair Ruslan Koshulynskyi are all scheduled to speak at plenaries on the opening day.

Hosted by the Milli Mejlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan, the Annual Session will be held under the theme “Helsinki +40: Towards Human Security for All.” It runs through 2 July, culminating in the adoption of the Baku Declaration, which will contain wide-ranging policy recommendations for the OSCE and its 57 participating States in the fields of political affairs and security, economics, the environment and human rights.

The OSCE PA team is holding meetings this week with staff of the Azerbaijani Parliament and the Conference Center of the Fairmont Baku Hotel, where the Session will take place, to ensure that everything is in order when nearly 300 OSCE parliamentarians arrive later this week. On-site preparation currently under way includes everything from the construction of offices to the translation of all documents and amendments.

Parliamentarians make up the bulk of nearly 500 participants from 54 OSCE participating States who have registered for the Annual Session. Delegations from five Partner for Co-operation states have also registered.

The meeting includes a packed agenda, with three General Committee resolutions to be considered in addition to 14 supplementary items. There are 124 pending amendments to the resolutions of the three committees, plus 56 amendments to the supplementary items.

In addition to voting on the resolutions and amendments, parliamentarians will hold elections for the Bureau, including for the President of the Assembly, three vice-presidents, and nine committee officers. The Assembly will also adopt the annual budget for the coming fiscal year.

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

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.