OSCE must focus on areas where it can add value, says Russian Foreign Ministry Human Rights Commissioner

VIENNA, 19 April 2012 – In its human dimension work, the OSCE must focus on areas where it can bring added value, and pay special attention to protecting rights of national minorities, freedom of movement, combating trafficking and developing single rules of election monitoring, said Ambassador Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council today.

“The OSCE should not replace, but complement the efforts of specialized international institutions and focus on the areas where it is able to bring value,” Dolgov said, adding that the Organization, including in its human dimension, must focus on matters which are “directly related” to security and help shape a climate of confidence.

Dolgov underlined some of Russia’s priorities in the OSCE’s work in the human dimension, such as the protection of national minorities’ rights and solving the issue of non-citizenship, as well as fighting racism, xenophobia, intolerance, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism.

Dolgov said that special attention must be paid to the OSCE commitment of freedom of movement, strengthening co-operation on human trafficking, and ensuring the rule of law as one of the priority tasks for the Organization.

Dolgov emphasized the need for “objective and balanced approach to problems in electoral legislation and practice present in all OSCE participating States” and said that the elaboration of single principles and rules of monitoring in the electoral field with the participation of professionals and representatives of central electoral bodies of OSCE participants is a matter which must be “urgently addressed”. An OSCE meeting in Vienna on democratic elections and election observation to take place on 12-13 July in Vienna can be a platform to discuss it, he added.

Dolgov said that he hoped that the work on increasing effectiveness of the OSCE human dimension activities would be based on a constructive and mutually respectful dialogue, and take the form of consensus decisions.

The Permanent Council is one of the OSCE's main regular decision-making bodies. It convenes weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make decisions.