OSCE, Alm.del - 2010-11 (1. samling) - Bilag 39: 3rd Committee - Draft Resolution for the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions.

Recalling that since 1975, with the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE has held that respectfor human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the principles that should governrelations among States,Fully aware of the fact that human rights and fundamental freedoms are still routinelyviolated in some parts of the OSCE area,Noting that in the course of the 1990s the OSCE put into place an array of instruments tomonitor the implementation of the commitments undertaken by the participating Stateswith regard to human rights and democracy (the human dimension),Recalling, among the aforementioned instruments, the Moscow Mechanism, establishedduring the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension in 1991, andthe Berlin Mechanism adopted in June 1991 on the occasion of the Berlin Meeting of theCSCE Council of Foreign Ministers,Pointing out that the OSCE’s ability to act, with respect also to the protection of humanrights, democracy and the rule of law, was further developed with the adoption of thePrague Document on Further Development of CSCE Institutions and Structures (30 and31 January 1992), which introduced the procedure of the so-called “consensus minusone”, on the basis of which the Council or the Committee of Senior Officials can, wherenecessary, take appropriate action even without the consent of the State concerned incases of clear, gross and uncorrected violations of OSCE commitments,Recalling that all the procedures and mechanisms developed by the OSCE in the courseof the 1990s regarding the “human dimension” should be considered in dealing with thenew threats facing the Organization,Noting the recent popular uprisings in the Arab world through which the populations ofthe countries concerned have spoken out in affirmation of their own right to expressfreely their opinions and to act as participants in the decision-making processes of theirrespective governments,Taking note also that, given the profound changes in the political situation within theOSCE area since the 1990s, there is need to re-launch its international role in conflictprevention and resolution so as to deal with these new challenges, regarding which – asfor example in the case of Libya – NATO is playing a central role,Recalling that at the Ministerial Council held in Copenhagen in 1997 the OSCEformulated for the first time the proposal to develop closer relations among theorganizations operating in the field of security, such as for example NATO, and that withthe adoption in November 1999 at Istanbul of the Charter for European Security theabsolute need to develop co-operation among international organizations within the

framework of their respective areas of competence and under the terms of Chapter VIIIof the Charter of the United Nations was affirmed,10. Taking the view that the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting does notprovide an adequate mechanism for effectively verifying the implementation byparticipating States of their commitments in the area of human rights,11. Stressing the importance of parliamentary control and effective information on theactivities of governments within the OSCE so as to be able to contribute to improvingtransparency and respect for the commitments assumed by the Organization,The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE12.Calls on all the OSCE participating States to implement in full the commitments theyhave assumed in the field of human rights and democracy;Emphasizes that the OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly should continue to workto promote democratic values in line with the commitments assumed by the OSCEparticipating States;Calls on all the OSCE participating States to apply the existing procedures, including,where necessary, the “consensus minus one” procedure, in cases of clear, gross anduncorrected violations of OSCE commitments;Convinced that the recent democratic revolutions in North Africa and the Middle Eastare of great relevance to the countries of the OSCE area and that the Organization andall its participating States should intensify their efforts to help in installing legitimateand democratic forms of government;Calls on the OSCE Ministerial Council to give consideration to the establishment ofrapid-reaction missions capable of contributing to the co-ordination of responses tointernational crises, such as, for example, mass migration movements;Urges the OSCE Ministerial Council to adopt long-term, at least three-year, mandatesfor OSCE field missions;Further urges the OSCE Ministerial Council to guarantee that the OSCE fieldmissions are assigned effective mandates that include activities in all spheres,including the areas of human rights and the human dimension;Calls on the OSCE Secretary General to allocate greater resources to the OSCEmissions on the ground, which constitute one of the Organization’s most importantassets;Encourages the participating States, with the assistance of the OSCE parliamentarians,to study solutions for updating, and guaranteeing the implementation of, the MoscowMechanism, as recently requested by 14 participating States with respect to thesituation in Belarus, so as to ensure that serious violations of human rights areeffectively examined;