On human rights and humanitarian questions, ‘business as usual’ in OSCE will not do, says Parliamentary Assembly’s Santos

COPENHAGEN, 5 May 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today addressed government representatives from the OSCE’s 57 participating States in Vienna, urging robust action and an end to “business as usual” on issues ranging from migrants and refugees to prisoners of conscience to the Guantanamo detention facility to the situation in occupied Crimea.
 
In a wide-ranging keynote address to the Human Dimension Committee of the OSCE’s Permanent Council, Santos cited the Council’s reliance on consensus voting and the OSCE’s inability to agree on a legal status as reasons for its “failing to fully deliver on human rights.”
 
She also urged the OSCE and its participating States not to be passive on pressing humanitarian issues, foremost among them the plight of refugees and migrants.
 
She argued that restrictive immigration laws within the OSCE area are in contradiction to the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act, the Organization’s founding document, in which States pledged to “Make it their aim to facilitate freer movement and contacts… and to contribute to the solution of the humanitarian problems that arise.”
 
The OSCE PA’s human rights Chair, who recently visited refugee camps on the Turkish-Syrian border, called on OSCE participating States to implement the  recommendations contained in the Assembly’s Resolution on the Situation of Refugees in the OSCE Area, which was passed by parliamentarians at the 2014 Annual Session. Those recommendations include the development of a procedure for more equitable sharing of migrant flows within the OSCE and the formulation of concrete steps to promote the social integration of refugees.
 
On another topic that has been addressed at recent OSCE PA meetings, Santos expressed her concern at the continued targeting of human rights defenders, critics and journalists by several governments, drawing attention to “political prisoners or prisoners of conscience” including in Azerbaijan and Russia. 
 
She further called for an end to the demonizing of NGOs in several OSCE participating States, a trend which she described as counter to democratic development.
 
“I have repeatedly raised my concern about this in Russia, where hundreds of NGOs, from environmental groups to LGBT rights groups to election-monitoring organizations, have been subject to searches by the authorities since the ‘foreign agent’ legislation came into effect in late 2012. I sincerely hope that draft legislation introducing similar provisions in Kyrgyzstan will not be adopted,” Santos said.
 
Santos, who also recently visited the Guantanamo detention facility, described its continued existence as a “dark spot on the United States’ reputation in the sphere of human rights and rule of law.”
 
Following her visit, the OSCE PA’s human rights Chair wrote to officials from all of the OSCE’s participating States to encourage them to receive the facility’s remaining detainees.
 
“I hope that one year from now our actions will allow us to all look in the mirror and feel relief at having put an end to this collective shame… It will be unforgivable if we don’t increase our work to this end,” she said in her address.
 
Santos further called on all States to “guarantee independent monitoring of detention facilities so that we can work together towards the complete eradication of torture” and, citing OSCE PA Declarations, argued for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty.
 
Before representatives from both Russia and Ukraine, Santos also highlighted the humanitarian and rule of law dimensions to the ongoing crisis.
 
“I am deeply disturbed by the actions of the occupying power in Crimea, who have exiled many from the local Crimean Tatar population, and who are shutting down independent media outlets,” Santos said.
 
“Russia’s continued support for separatist rebels [in the east of the country] perpetuates war and lawlessness, hurting all people in the region. This is a humanitarian crisis that must be addressed here and now. Political resolution is required, but a solution to the human suffering has to be a priority,” she added.
 
Santos also stressed Ukraine’s responsibility to quickly and transparently investigate the recent deaths of individuals affiliated with the previous government and hold accountable those behind the Odessa tragedy of May 2014.
 
While in Vienna, Santos also held bilateral meetings with representatives of several governments.
 
The issues raised in her address will be further considered at the Assembly’s Annual Session in Helsinki in July, where parliamentarians from across the OSCE area will offer suggestions relating to all of the OSCE’s spheres of work.

The full remarks of Isabel Santos to the Human Dimension Committee are available here: http://www.oscepa.org/publications/all-documents/officers-of-the-assembly/isabel-santos-portugal/2824-remarks-to-the-osce-human-dimension-committee-5-may-2015/file