Georgia, Kosovo, gender issues and Secretary General focus of OSCE Magazine

VIENNA, 24 October 2006 - An account of how the Belgian Chairmanship of the OSCE brokered an urgently needed solution in Georgia after four Russian officers were taken into custody is the lead item in the October issue of the OSCE Magazine, now available online and in print.

Introducing the Magazine's special focus on Kosovo, United Nations Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari gives an overview of the status talks and foresees the OSCE continuing to play an important role on the ground, citing its "unique and unrivalled ability to monitor conditions at the local level".

Ambassador Werner Wnendt, Head of Mission, explains in an interview why  - seven years after the OSCE's largest field presence was established - the time has come to wind down its emphasis on creating institutions and instead focus on monitoring their development. OSCE teams have been deployed in 33 municipalities to help these fledgling local and central democratic bodies perform according to the highest standards.

An in-depth article examines the last of a long list of institutions created from the ground up by the OSCE Mission: the independent Police Inspectorate of Kosovo, with its bold and unique approach to policing the Police.

The OSCE's Gender Action Plan also comes under scrutiny just over a year after its launching, with field contributions spotlighting efforts of professional women in Armenia and other parts of the Caucasus and in Central Asia to make themselves more visible in political and public life.

Ambassador Mette Kongshem of Norway leads the series on gender by urging the OSCE's senior management and participating States to take the Organization's gender strategy more seriously, "if we are to be true to our comprehensive and cross-dimensional approach to security".

The publication also carries an interview with OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, the first since his appointment to his post in June 2005. "This is an Organization that is absolutely unique in its extreme decentralization, in the rule of consensus among very different States, and in the exceptional ambition and scope of its missions and the mandates it has set for itself," the Secretary General says.

Published in English and in Russian the Magazine can be accessed on the OSCE website. Online editions in French and Spanish will be introduced. Readers can also subscribe to the print version at www.osce.org/publications or at osce-magazine-at@osce.org