Chairman
Title
Title
Representative Christopher H. Smith
Since 2015, Representative Chris Smith (NJ-04) has chaired the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where he actively promotes human rights and rule of law in the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is also a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, where he chairs the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee.
Chairman Smith serves as an active member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), which facilitates inter-parliamentary dialogue among the participating States. Since 2004, he has been the Special Representative for Human Trafficking Issues to the President of the OSCE PA.
At the Commission, Chairman Smith’s priorities have included preventing human trafficking, combating anti-Semitism, promoting religious freedom, advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience, and advocating for human rights and accountability in numerous OSCE countries, most recently focused on Northern Ireland, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Russia.
Elected in 1980, Chairman Smith is currently in his 18th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has been a member of the Commission since 1983, and chaired the Commission in four previous Congresses.
“The principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act are under attack...the United States must advocate much more vigorously for those who are victims and are voiceless.”
– Congressman Chris Smith
Priorities
Trafficking in Human Beings
Chairman Smith authored the United States' landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations in 2003 and 2005. Since 2004, he has served as the OSCE PA Special Representative on Human Trafficking Issues.
Anti-Semitism
Chairman Smith has a long record as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism, and played a key role in the norms adopted in the OSCE in 2004 for its participating States on fighting anti-Semitism.
Freedom of Religion
To strengthen U.S. government efforts to protect the right to religious freedom, Chairman Smith recently introduced the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act and continues to fight for people worldwide to be able to live their faith.
Helsinki Principles
Since the 1980s, Chairman Smith has consistently promoted the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and its uniquely comprehensive definition of security.
Human Trafficking
Chairman Smith first raised the issue of human trafficking at the 1999 St. Petersburg OSCE PA Annual Session in St. Petersburg, and has introduced or cosponsored a supplementary item or amendments on trafficking to committee resolutions at each annual session of the OSCE PA, including on issues such as the prevention of child-sex tourism, training of the transportation sector (particularly airlines) in victim identification and reporting, private sector responsibility for trafficking-free supply chains, special protections for vulnerable populations, and government accountability for choosing trafficking-free suppliers and contractors.
Many of the ideas in Chairman Smith’s supplementary items are reflected in the 2013 Addendum to the OSCE Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, and have prompted other parliamentarians to focus on addressing human trafficking in their respective capitals.
Anti-Semitism
Chairman Smith co-chairs the Bipartisan Task Force for Combatting Anti-Semitism in the U.S. House of Representatives and authored the provisions of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 that created the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism within the U.S. State Department. In 2015, he authored House Resolution 354, a blueprint for strengthening the safety and security of European Jewish communities, which passed the House of Representatives unanimously.
Following his 2002 landmark hearing on combating the escalation of anti-Semitic violence in Europe, “Escalating Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe,” he led a congressional drive to place the issue of combating anti-Semitism at the top of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agenda, as a result of which in 2004 the OSCE adopted new norms for its participating States on fighting anti-Semitism.
Chairman Smith is a founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA), where he also serves on the steering committee. In 2009, he delivered the keynote address at the ICCA London conference.
In the 1990s, he chaired Congress’s first hearings on anti-Semitism and in the early 1980s, his first trips abroad as a member of Congress were to the former Soviet Union, where he fought for the release of Jewish “refuseniks.”
Religious Freedom
International religious freedom has been one of Chairman Smith’s top priorities since he has been in Congress. He has chaired more than 50 hearings on the issue, introduced many related bills and resolutions, and managed the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee that focuses on human rights.
Chairman Smith has traveled around the world to meet with prisoners and others individuals and communities whose religious freedom has been violated or is at-risk, consult with civil society, honor those killed because of their faith, and press foreign governments to resolve specific cases and respect religious freedom. He has consistently worked to ensure the U.S. government prioritizes international religious freedom as a reflection of American values and an essential element of U.S. national security.
Helsinki Principles
As the longest-serving member of the Helsinki Commission, Chairman Smith has played a leading role in defending the 10 principles of the Helsinki Final Act, including sovereign equality, territorial integrity, respect for universally-recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, and equal rights and self-determination of peoples. In countries from Azerbaijan to the United Kingdom, he has championed the development of democracy, rule of law, and the promotion and defense of human rights.
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