Civil society recommendations presented to OSCE executive structures, institutions at an online handover meeting

The Civic Solidarity Platform, a coalition of civil society organizations from across the OSCE region, presented recommendations to the OSCE executive structures, institutions and participating States at an online event on 7 December 2020.

About 50 representatives of civil society organizations participated in the meeting that took place in lieu of the OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference 2020.

At the virtual handover session, OSCE executive structures and institutions were handed the Tirana Declaration on Human Rights, Democracy and the Fight against Corruption, which calls on the OSCE and its participating States to radically step up the fight against corruption. The Agenda for International Support of a Human Rights and Democracy Transition in Belarus by international and Belarusian civil society NGOs, which contains recommendations regarding international support to a human rights and democracy transition in Belarus, was also handed over.

Recommendations in the Tirana Declaration included, among other things, to continue the fight against corruption at all levels as a priority of the OSCE Chair and to prioritize

the continuous monitoring and refining of strategies, tactics and steps to prevent and fight corruption in each state’s civil service, judiciary and political sector.

The Agenda drew inspiration from several documents, including the report in the framework of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, resolutions of the European Parliament and statements of the PACE Legal Affairs Committee, as well as deliberations at recent roundtable meetings and workshops organized by civil society groups.

In his address to the participants, Agron Tare, Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania stressed that the Albania’s 2020 OSCE Chairmanship greatly values the role civil society plays in the OSCE area, noting that “throughout this year we have made every effort to ensure broad and open access for civil society in our meetings, in line with our OSCE documents and decisions”.

Robert Rydberg, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden representing the incoming OSCE Chair; Katarzyna Gardapkhadze, First Deputy Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and Jürgen Heissel, Director, the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media also attended the meeting.