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Digests
Helsinki Commission Digests regularly compile items of thematic interest as well as summaries of recent events and developments in the OSCE region.
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Security in the Mediterranean Region: Challenges and Opportunities
Friday, November 13, 2015From October 20-21, 2015, the OSCE held its annual Mediterranean Conference focused on “Security in the Mediterranean Region – Challenges and Opportunities.” It included four distinctive themes: Session I: Common Security in the Mediterranean Region; Session II: Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism; Session III: The Role of Interfaith/Intercultural Dialogue; and Session IV: Irregular Migration, Refugee Protection, Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking in the Mediterranean.
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Bipartisan Congressional Delegation Represents US at OSCE Parliamentary Assembly; Also Visits Ukraine, Czech Republic
Monday, August 17, 2015Forty years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act established the precursor to today’s Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), five members of the Helsinki Commission and four other members of Congress traveled to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session in Helsinki to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to confronting Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere. Led by Commission Co-Chairman Senator Roger F. Wicker (MS), the bicameral, bipartisan delegation organized by the Helsinki Commission included Commission Chairman Representative Chris Smith (NJ- 04); House Commissioners Robert B. Aderholt (AL-04), Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Alan Grayson (FL-09); and Representatives Gwen Moore (WI-04), Michael Fitzpatrick (PA-08), Richard Hudson (NC-08) and Ruben Gallego (AZ-07). Before attending the Annual Session from July 5 to 7, several members of the delegation also visited Ukraine and the Czech Republic. A central concern to the delegation throughout the trip was Russia’s restrictions on democracy at home and aggression in Ukraine, along with Russia’s threat to European security.
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Diversity on the Rise
Tuesday, December 23, 2014Germany is now only second to the United States in the number of migrants it annually welcomes to its borders. Predominantly from other European Union Member States, migrants now account for roughly 16.3 million residents, or 20 percent of the German population, putting Germany on course to becoming one of Europe’s most diverse countries. Against the backdrop of an uptick in far-right extremism, anti-Muslim marches, continuing anti-Semitism, and parliamentary efforts to introduce anti-migrant policies, Germany’s diverse citizenry is stepping forward to make Germany more welcoming.
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OSCE Must Act on Anti-Semitism
Monday, December 08, 2014Germany, in cooperation with the Swiss Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), held the Berlin Tenth Anniversary Conference on Anti-Semitism on November 12-13, 2014, against the backdrop of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. The Conference was set to be a commemorative meeting acknowledging government efforts to combat anti-Semitism over the past decade. However, the recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents such as those that resulted in deaths in Kansas, Brussels, and Toulouse earlier this year, dictated that the meeting focus on a way forward to address current problems. Although the Conference attracted a notably lower level of attendance than it did a decade earlier, participants identified key opportunities for coalition development and OSCE action in the years to come. The Conference was attended by some 550 participants (including approximately 200 civil society representatives), and featured high-level panelists and speakers including Ambassador Samantha Power, United States Ambassador to the United Nations; Miroslav Lajcák, Slovak Republic Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs; Lynne Yelich, Minister of State of Canada; Paavo Lipponen, Former Prime Minister of Finland; and Tzachi Hanegbi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel.
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Bipartisan U.S. Delegation Defends Ukraine, Raises Concerns about Russia at OSCE Parliamentary Session
Wednesday, December 03, 2014From June 27 to July 3, 2014, a bicameral, bipartisan delegation of eight Members of Congress represented the United States at the annual session of the OSCE’s 57-nation Parliamentary Assembly in Baku, Azerbaijan. The delegation, which was organized by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also made side visits to Georgia and Moldova. The congressional delegation was led by the Commission Chairman, Senator Ben Cardin (MD), while the Co-Chairman, Representative Chris Smith (NJ-04) was head of delegation at the Assembly session. The Commission’s Ranking Senator, Roger Wicker (MS) and House Commissioners Robert Aderholt (AL-04) and Phil Gingrey (GA-11) also participated, along with Senator Tom Harkin (IA) and Representatives David Schweikert (AZ-06) and Adam Schiff (CA-28). A central concern at the Assembly meeting, as well as during bilateral interaction with the authorities and people of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova, was Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea and its incursions into eastern Ukraine. The congressional delegation was highly critical of Moscow’s attempt to reassert its domination over the affairs of its neighbors more than two decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and it reassured friends and allies of the deep and continuing commitment of the United States to security and cooperation in Europe and throughout the OSCE region.
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Annual OSCE Human Rights Meeting Dominated by Russia and Ukraine
Thursday, November 06, 2014Representatives of governments and civil society from OSCE participating States met in Warsaw, Poland, from September 22 to October 3, 2014 for the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM). The meeting was organized by the OSCE office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) under the leadership of its newly-appointed Director Michael Link. This year’s annual OSCE human dimension implementation meeting drew 1,225 participants from 53 countries, including 700 NGOs. There were an unprecedented 82 side events on specific countries or issues. The session on tolerance and nondiscrimination was the most oversubscribed of the three-hour sessions with 85 people vying for the speaker’s list. Other specific topics for HDIM sessions included violence against women, rights of migrants and right of national minorities. In this issue: About the U.S. HDIM Delegation Russia Takes Propaganda Campaign to Warsaw OSCE Ambassadors Visit Auschwitz Civil Society Speaks Up
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Kyiv Ministerial Held Amid Protests
Friday, January 24, 2014On December 5 and 6, 2013, Kyiv hosted the 20th meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe while hundreds of thousands of protestors occupied Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv’s central square. Although as 2013 OSCE Chair-in-Office, Ukraine had successfully shepherded a package of decisions to adoption in Kyiv, the meeting was dominated by demonstrations taking place throughout the country triggered on November 21 by the Ukrainian government’s suspension of preparations to sign integration agreements with the EU. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland represented the United States. She began the Ministerial by meeting with civil society activists, which she described as her “most important event” in Kyiv. In her opening statement at the Ministerial, she highlighted three “worrying trends” in OSCE participating States: the persecution of journalists, the rising intolerance of minorities, and “democratic backsliding” into restrictive laws and practices that violate civil liberties.