PRESS ADVISORY OSCE Parliamentarians meet in Washington to debate international security and human rights topics COPENHAGEN, 22 June 2005 –   Nearly 300 parliamentarians from the 55 OSCE participating States  will  meet  in Washington,  DC,  from  July  1-5,  to  debate  issues  affecting  the  OSCE  area, including gender equality, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia (Georgia), trafficking in human beings, and  respect  for  human  rights.  The  14^th  Annual  Session  of  the  Parliamentary  Assembly  of  the Organization  for  Security  and  Co-operation  in  Europe  will  be  addressed  by  senior  officials including  the  US  Secretary  of  State,  Condoleezza  Rice,  and  the  OSCE  Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian  Foreign  Minister  Dimitrij  Rupel.   The  current  President  of  the  Assembly  is  US Congressman Alcee L. Hastings of Florida. Coming   from   all   parts   of   the   OSCE,   parliamentarians   from   North   America,   Europe,   the Caucasus  and  Central  Asia  will  meet  to  debate  current  issues.  In  addition  to  the  resolutions prepared  by  the  Assembly’s  Rapporteurs  on  political,  economic,  environmental  and  human rights  issues  related  to  the  Session’s   theme  ‘30  Years  since  Helsinki:  Challenges  Ahead’, supplementary resolutions on specific issues have been prepared. Consideration will be given to topics   such   as   piracy,   trafficking   in   human   beings,   standards   of   conduct   by   international humanitarian  workers,  combating  terrorism,  trafficking  in  small  arms,  the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,  gender  equality,  co-operation  with  Mediterranean  states,  Abkhazia  (Georgia),  money laundering  and  corruption,  Moldova,  anti-Semitism,  election  observation  activities  and  OSCE reform.   The  Final  Document,  to  be  adopted  on  the  last  day  of  the  meeting,  will  include recommendations on these and other issues. Meeting  for  the  first  time  in  the  United  States,  this  will  also  be  the  first  opportunity  for  the OSCE parliamentarians to meet and hear an address by the newly appointed Secretary General of the OSCE, Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. The Assembly will also honour Ukraine Television  Channel  Five  with  the  tenth  OSCE  Prize  for  Journalism  and  Democracy,  to  be awarded on the first day of the Session. The  meetings  of  the  Assembly will  take  place  in  the  premises  of  the  JW  Marriott  Hotel  in Washington,   DC.   All   documents   and   forms   for   the   Session,   including   press   applications, resolutions   and   other    general   information,    can   be   found   on   the    Assembly’s   website: www.oscepa.org. For   further   information,   representatives   of   the   media   are   kindly   requested   to   consult www.oscepa.org,  or  to  contact  Press  Counsellor  Jan  R.M.  Jooren,  (e-mail:  [email protected], Mobile:  +  45  40  41  16  41)  or  Press  Officer  Andreas  Baker,  (e-mail  [email protected])  at   the OSCE PA International Secretariat in Copenhagen at, Tel +45 33 37 80 40, Fax +45 33 37 80 30. The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, created by the CSCE Summit in Paris in 1990, is the parliamentary dimension of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.  The  primary  task  of  the  317  member  Assembly  is  to  facilitate  inter-parliamentary dialogue,  an  important  aspect  of  the  overall  effort  to  meet  the  challenges  of  democracy throughout the OSCE area.