OSCE, Alm.del - 2010-11 (1. samling) - Bilag 56: The Belgrade Declaration

CHAPTER IPOLITICAL AFFAIRS AND SECURITY1.Recalling past OSCE PA resolutions on the reform of the OSCE, strengthening of theco-operation between the OSCE and the OSCE PA and the future orientation of theOSCE, as well as the 2005 OSCE PA Colloquium Report,Welcoming the adoption of the Astana Commemorative Declaration, in particular thedecision by Heads of State and Government to recommit themselves to the vision of afree, democratic, common and indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian securitycommunity stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, and to reaffirm the relevance of,and our commitment to, the principles on which the OSCE is based,Guided by a common goal to enhance the role of the OSCE as a forum for politicaldialogue on an equal footing and consensus-based decision-making processes on keyissues of security and co-operation in the OSCE area, while bearing in mind the view thatthe OSCE should be transformed into a fully-fledged international organization,Regretting that the Astana Summit failed to adopt an Action Plan including guidelines forfurthering implementation, which would provide the OSCE with clearer guidelines for itsfuture activities,

Welcoming the decision of the Lithuanian Chairmanship to continue consultations onstrengthening the legal framework of the OSCE and to discuss the possibility ofpreparing a constituent document,Expressing deep concern over the lack of consensus on a number of political issueswithin the OSCE which have led to the closure of the OSCE Mission to Georgia and theOSCE Office in Minsk,Deeply disturbed by the lack of progress in solving the protracted conflicts within theOSCE area,Realizing that changes to the security environment in recent years along with the unevenpace of integration, economic growth and democratic development as well as the issue offood security have led to the emergence of new problems in achieving comprehensivesecurity, which the OSCE should address,

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:9.Calls on the OSCE to continue its informal discussions started in the so-calledCorfu Processon all three dimensions under the direct leadership of the Chairmanshipwith an appropriate contribution by the Parliamentary Assembly in order to define thefuture strategy of the OSCE within its comprehensive security concept, also bearing inmind the consequences of the global economic crisis and the most recent crisis in somecountries of the Mediterranean;Urges the OSCE Chairmanship to develop a concrete plan of action with real proposalsregarding future measures, which should be reviewed at the next meeting of theMinisterial Council in Vilnius; to this end calls on the OSCE Chairmanship to monitorand evaluate the implementation of Decision 19/06 of the Brussels OSCE MinisterialCouncil and to conduct a review of that and other decisions concerning the matter ofraising the OSCE’s effectiveness, and to take appropriate action;Encourages the OSCE to increase upon request the sharing of its values and experiencebeyond the OSCE area, particularly to OSCE Partners for Co-operation and neighbouringareas while at the same time reinforcing the strategic co-operation with the EU, the UN,NATO, the Council of Europe, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and otherrelevant international and regional organizations;Welcomes the current work to enhance the politico-military security dimension of theOSCE by updating the 1999 Vienna Document, and calls for enhanced implementation ofthe Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security as well as for increasedefforts to start negotiations on the strengthening and modernizing of conventional armscontrol in Europe;Welcomes the recent arrest by Serbian security services of Ratko Mladic, who has beentransferred to The Hague to face long-standing charges of genocide, crimes againsthumanity and war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former2

Yugoslavia, and commends those who have laboured for years to bring Mladic to justicewith the goals of providing comfort to his surviving victims, contributing to regionalstability and reconciliation, improving the prospects for European integration, andencouraging further efforts to bring to justice those responsible for atrocities committedduring the conflicts in the Western Balkans;14.Deplores the recent increase in tension around Nagorno-Karabakh, and urges thatincreased political efforts be made within the OSCE to settle the unresolved conflicts inNagorno-Karabakh, as well as in Moldova and Georgia;Calls for the Permanent Council of the OSCE to provide the Conflict Prevention Centrewith improved capacity for the Organization’s rapid reaction capability to be able to liveup to its mandate in situations like the 2010 crisis in Kyrgyzstan;Regrets the lack of consensus which led to the closure of the OSCE Mission to Georgiaand the OSCE Office in Minsk, and encourages the Chairmanship to continue to work fora viable solution to restore their presence in order for the OSCE to remain relevant in thefield where it is most needed;Recognizes food self-sufficiency and security as a new and major challenge in severalOSCE participating States, and therefore calls on the OSCE to consider including thisissue on its agenda with the goal of reducing political instability, radicalization of conflictand unacceptable inequalities;Requests Parliaments of OSCE participating States to commit themselves to curbingincreases in the price of agricultural commodities by adopting measures needed toincrease the supply of food commodities, inside and outside the OSCE area, includinglegislation to improve living standards in rural areas and to encourage a more balanceduse of land to meet both food and energy demands;Invites the participating States to seriously consider new challenges emanating fromtransnational threats, such as illegal migration, environmental degradation, food scarcityand other political problems in adjacent areas which would require joint action;Urges the OSCE to undertake the necessary structural reform in order to help overcomestalemates on political issues as well as issues related to personnel and administration. Inthis respect:(a) Repeats its call for strengthening and politicizing the role of the OSCE SecretaryGeneral in order to have a spokesperson who, in co-operation with the Chairman-in-Office, can make policy pronouncements and appropriate statements when OSCEcommitments are not observed which would at the same time increase the influenceand the public profile of the Organization;(b) Reiterates its recommendation to modify the consensus rule for decision-making, atleast for decisions related to personnel, budget and administration issues;3

(c) Proposes that the question of establishing unified rules for appointment to leadingpositions within the OSCE be considered;(d) Underlines again the importance of having the budget adopted in a timely fashionevery year, and calls on the OSCE to develop a multi-year financial plan to pursuelonger term strategies which would include and foster the co-operation of moreChairmanships;(e) Encourages the Secretary General to employ independent professional outsideauditors and to make audit reports and recommendations available to the OSCE PA;(f) Repeats its call for the OSCE to improve its staffing mechanisms by eliminatingfixed-term limits on duration of service and reducing reliance on seconded personnelin field operations;(g) Reiterates its call to examine the idea of permitting the opening of PermanentCouncil Meetings, on an ad hoc basis, to the press and public, beyond what isforeseen by the current Rules of Procedure of the OSCE;(h) Calls for a special discussion within the framework of the OSCE PA Winter Meetingin 2012 on the issue of further raising the OSCE’s effectiveness, and requests theOSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Secretary General to take an active part in thatdiscussion;(i) Repeats its call for the OSCE Permanent Council to put OSCE PArecommendations – including those from the 2005 Colloquium Report – on itsagenda for debate in order to ensure better co-operation with the Assembly.

CHAPTER IIECONOMIC AFFAIRS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THEENVIRONMENT21.Actively supporting the concept, adopted by the OSCE, of common, comprehensive andindivisible security, which encompasses the politico-military, the human, and theeconomic and environmental dimensions,Emphasizing the interrelationship that has been demonstrated by history betweeneconomic hardships and political extremism, xenophobia, instability and eveninternational upheavals,Recognizing that the consequences of the economic crisis have had a disproportionateimpact on the most vulnerable members of society, including women, young people,people belonging to national minorities and migrants,Noting that the emergency measures taken by governments in response to extraordinaryevents (the global financial crisis, natural disasters, and civil and military conflicts in anumber of countries) are reducing the effectiveness of parliamentary oversight, andconvinced that this calls for additional efforts by national parliaments to assistgovernments in their emergency measures,Welcoming the role that the OSCE can play in helping to ensure economic developmentand co-operation, environmental security, and counteracting ecological challenges,including complementary work with the United Nations in minimization of theconsequences of climate change,Understanding that circumstances of utter helplessness and lack of prospects in thecountries of origin – i.e. problems which were not resolved as one century turned into thenext, and which all too often were further exacerbated – are the key stimulus tomigration, and that these problems have been compounded by additional ills arising fromcivil conflicts in the OSCE region’s neighbouring countries,Noting that the arguments and proposals set out in the resolution on “Migration as aContinuing Challenge for the OSCE” (Oslo Declaration of the OSCE ParliamentaryAssembly of 2010) have lost none of their relevance over the past year, and thatregulation of migration issues, including illegal migration issues, is an absolute necessityin order to avoid irregular situations which cause harm both to the migrants and, in abroader sense, to the countries of origin and the countries of destination,Reaffirming that OSCE participating States are obliged to co-operate in the preparationand implementation of migration, including illegal migration, mechanisms in accordancewith universal human rights,5

Welcoming the statement in Deauville (May 2011) by the G8 nations endorsing theExtractive Industries Transparency Initiative and calling for greater revenue transparencyin the extractive industries as a way to help decrease poverty and ensure energy security,Reaffirming the Astana Declaration of 2008 and the Oslo Declaration of 2010 and theirresolutions on cyber crime and cyber security, which recognize that cyber attacks are agreat challenge to governments, and that the results of a cyber attack against vital Stateinfrastructure and commercial infrastructure are equivalent in nature to those of aconventional act of aggression,

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:31.Recommends that the OSCE offer itself to participating States as a leading internationalorganization not only in the sphere of democratization, free elections and respect forhuman rights, but also with regard to issues such as preventing tensions over energysecurity in the OSCE region;Calls on governments to view the economic and environmental area of the OSCE’s workas one of the most promising from the standpoint of the long-term interests ofparticipating States, in the context of the consequences of the global financial crisis andthe increasing frequency of natural disasters;Proposes to participating States that they step up the processes for the creation within theOSCE region of open, integrated markets that function on the basis of joint or unifiedrules, which could further enhance economic co-operation and integration in the OSCEregion;Calls for investment in environmentally friendly sectors and the development of energy-saving technologies and renewable sources of energy, and also the incorporation of newenvironmentally sound methods of economic activity in the initiatives for post-crisiseconomic recovery, in the interests of curbing climate change;Notes in the context of the global energy dialogue the need to strengthen co-operationand balance the interests not only of energy producers and consumers but also of transitcountries, thereby ensuring a secure supply;Emphasizes the importance of the protection of vital energy infrastructure from terroristattacks and of energy infrastructure planning in the OSCE region, taking into accountenvironmental threats and nuclear safety in vulnerable areas, such as seismologicallyactive, earthquake-affected areas, as well as the interests of neighbouring countries andother States;Calls on the international community to participate in the process of completing theconstruction of a new “sarcophagus” for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as wasplanned earlier, and to continue to provide support for activities aimed at rehabilitatingthe areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster, and also calls on participating States to6

prepare co-ordinated action in the event of new nuclear incidents at atomic power plantsin the OSCE region or in the vicinity of the region;38.Urgently recommends that the governments of the OSCE participating States beginelaborating proposals for establishing a global system for preventing and eliminating theconsequences of natural disasters, which would involve the set of measures outlined inthe Brussels Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly of 2006;Calls on the Member States of the Council of Europe and, if the Council of Europe isinterested and invites them to do so, other OSCE participating States to sign and ratifythree conventions: the European Convention on Nationality, the Convention on theParticipation of Foreigners in Public Life at the Local Level and the EuropeanConvention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers, and also to sign and ratify theProtocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, adopted by the UnitedNations in 2000, for the purpose of combating illegal migration;Calls for the signing of bilateral or regional agreements between the countries of originand the host countries, providing, among other things, for, on the one hand, access tosavings accounts to foster investment and the secure transfer of migrants’ remittances totheir home country, and, on the other hand, a commitment to co-operate with diasporasand the observance of international standards for employment abroad;Calls on the international community to increase co-operation and information exchangein the field of cyber security, to agree on specific measures to counter the cyber threatand to create, where possible, universal rules of conduct in cyberspace;Emphasizes the need to assess the effectiveness of the existing norms with a view tofinding common responses, on the basis of OSCE standards and values, to the rapiddevelopment of new information technologies and the increase in the threat of cybercrime;Welcomes the consultative, financial and other assistance by international organizationsand institutions with the relevant experience and resources to support the efforts ofparticipating States to reduce poverty and ensure sustainable development in the OSCEregion.

CHAPTER IIIDEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN QUESTIONS44.Recalling that since 1975, with the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE has held that respect forhuman 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 a 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 NATO, and that with the adoption8

in November 1999 at Istanbul of the Charter for European Security the absolute need todevelop co-operation among international organizations within the framework of theirrespective areas of competence and under the terms of Chapter VIII of the Charter of theUnited Nations was affirmed,53.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,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 OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:55.Calls on all the OSCE participating States to implement in full the commitments theyhave assumed in the fields of human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and therule of law;Emphasizes that the OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly should continue to work topromote democratic values in line with the commitments assumed by the OSCEparticipating States;Reaffirms the importance of free and fair elections to safeguard and consolidate the ruleof law and the respect of human rights and of fundamental freedoms in all the OSCEparticipating States;Calls on all the OSCE participating States to apply the existing procedures, including,only where necessary, the “consensus minus one” procedure, in accordance with theprovisions contained in the Prague Document on Further Development of CSCEInstitutions and Structures (30 and 31 January 1992), in cases of clear, gross anduncorrected violations of OSCE commitments;Convinced that the recent democratic revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East areof great relevance to the countries of the OSCE area because they could inspire thepeople of these countries to seek a greater degree of democracy, the rule of law andhuman rights, and that the Organization and all its participating States should thereforeintensify their efforts to ensure that there are legitimate and democratic forms ofgovernment not only in the regions of North Africa and the Middle East, but also in theirown countries;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 mass migration movements;

Urges the OSCE Ministerial Council to adopt long-term, at least three-year, mandates forOSCE field missions;Calls on the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to analyseelection laws and practices in the OSCE participating States with a view to identifyingbest practice and outlining criteria for objective election observation and assessment;Further urges the OSCE Ministerial Council to guarantee that the OSCE field missionsare assigned effective mandates that include activities in all spheres, including the areasof human rights and the human dimension;Calls on the OSCE Secretary General to allocate greater resources to the OSCE missionson the ground, which constitute one of the Organization’s most important assets;Encourages the participating States, with the assistance of the OSCE parliamentarians, tostudy solutions for updating, and guaranteeing the implementation of, the MoscowMechanism, as recently requested by 14 participating States with respect to the situationin Belarus, so as to ensure that serious violations of human rights are effectivelyexamined;Declares the readiness of the OSCE parliamentarians to contribute to political initiatives,such as fact-finding missions to look into humanitarian issues;Calls for greater bilateral and regional contacts with parliaments in Central Asia, inparticular with the parliament of Kyrgyzstan, through the OSCE field presence;Requests the OSCE Permanent Council to organize fortnightly meetings to examineissues having to do with human rights, with these meetings to be conducted in a way thatis open to the public and the media and with the participation of civil societyrepresentatives, and to undertake in this way the continuous monitoring of theimplementation of OSCE human dimension commitments;Calls for the OSCE Permanent Council to pay special attention to the violation of OSCEcommitments in the human dimension, regularly to consider human rights issues and todefend the open and free participation of non-governmental organizations, as set out inOSCE commitments, in OSCE events in the human dimension, in order to contribute tothe ongoing review of implementation of commitments.