OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2014-15 (1. samling)
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 23
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AS (15) DRS 3 E

Original: English

DRAFT RESOLUTION

FOR THE GENERAL COMMITTEE ON

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND

HUMANITARIAN QUESTIONS

Recalling the Spirit of Helsinki

RAPPORTEUR

Ms. Gordana Comic

Serbia

HELSINKI, 5 – 9 JULY 2015

OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

DRAFT RESOLUTION FOR THE GENERAL COMMITTEE ON

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN QUESTIONS

Rapporteur: Ms. Gordana Comic (Serbia)

1. Recognizing the important role that the Helsinki Final Act and the CSCE process played

in bringing the Cold War to an end,

2. Recalling that the Decalogue of Principles of the Helsinki Final Act has played an

important role in stabilizing relations in the OSCE area for decades,

3. Noting that the seventh of these Principles rests at the heart of the OSCE’s success, as all

participating States recognized that the human rights of all people in all OSCE countries

are the legitimate concern of each and every OSCE participating State,

4. Affirming the right of and responsibility for OSCE participating States to speak out when

abuses take place in other OSCE participating States, including in cases of politically

motivated imprisonment, imposition of the death penalty, discriminatory treatment,

including that of migrants and refugees, and actions against journalists and human rights

defenders,

5. Welcoming the work of OSCE Institutions in monitoring and calling attention to breaches

of human rights, particularly in the fields of freedom of expression, minorities’ rights, and

democratic rights,

6. Expressing its appreciation to the High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Office

for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and the Representative on

Freedom of the Media for their continued monitoring of States’ implementation of

commitments,

7. Reiterating the positive contribution that independent election observation by both

domestic and international observers can make to democratic processes in all countries,

8. Convinced that the current decision-making structures within the OSCE are inadequate

for addressing serious human rights concerns and advancing human rights norms, as these

are best addressed through open and transparent processes,

9. Noting that the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, portrayed as

the primary forum for discussing human rights issues, does not provide sufficient and

timely monitoring or review of human rights in the OSCE region,

10. Concerned about the lack of agreement within the OSCE Ministerial Council in recent

years on virtually any decisions related to human rights and humanitarian questions,

11. Concerned that participating States have been diluting the mandates of OSCE field

missions to effectively monitor and report on human rights-related issues,

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OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

12. Recognizing that criminal terrorists and other non-state actors can pose significant

security and human rights threats, and that neither existing criminal legislation nor the

traditional laws of war may be adequate for addressing such challenges,

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:

13. Calls upon the OSCE Ministerial Council to adopt a decision clearly recognizing that the

human rights of all OSCE populations are the legitimate concern of all OSCE

participating States, and that effective implementation of these rights requires

transparency through ongoing monitoring and public reporting;

14. Calls upon the OSCE’s decision-making structures to once again put individuals’ rights at

the core of their mandates, and to this end reiterates its call for the Permanent Council to

organize fortnightly meetings to examine issues having to do with human rights, with

these meetings to be conducted in a manner that is open to the public and the media and

with the participation of civil society representatives, and to undertake in this way the

continuous monitoring of the implementation of OSCE human dimension commitments;

15. Expresses concern about efforts in several OSCE participating States to impose

increasing and unnecessary restrictions on the work of civil society groups;

16. Condemns the continued persecution and imprisonment on politically motivated charges

of journalists and human rights defenders in several OSCE participating States, and

expresses its concern at the continued misuse of tax and administrative legislation to

justify these acts;

17. Expresses concern at the abuse of pre-trial detention mechanisms, particularly in such

politically sensitive cases, and calls upon OSCE participating States to only accept pre-

trial detention in exceptional cases and when public security is at stake or when a suspect

presents a genuine flight risk;

18. Expresses further concern at the disappearance of and lack of information regarding

numerous critics of governments within the OSCE area, and calls upon governments to

provide any and all information on the whereabouts of these individuals to the families of

these persons and to the international community;

19. Calls upon the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the

Representative on Freedom of the Media to continue to speak out publicly when rights are

abused, including in cases of politically motivated imprisonment, imposition of the death

penalty, discriminatory treatment, including that of migrants and refugees, and actions

against journalists and human rights defenders;

20. Reiterates its call for OSCE field missions to be given robust and multi-year mandates

that include monitoring and reporting on human rights and humanitarian concerns;

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OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

21. Supports the continued leadership by OSCE parliamentarians of OSCE election

observation activities, as the independence that parliamentarians bring to this endeavour,

supported by the technical abilities of the ODIHR, provides unmatched credibility;

22. Supports the conflict prevention work conducted by the High Commissioner on National

Minorities, whose expertise on inter-ethnic relations also serves an important function in

supporting minorities’ rights;

23. Calls upon the OSCE Ministerial Council to specifically recognize the inherent rights of

lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as a natural continuation of the

human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Final

Act, and other CSCE and OSCE documents since that time;

24. Further calls upon OSCE participating States to rescind all anti-LGBT legislation,

including the criminalization of providing information on LGBT issues;

25. Stresses that participating States must provide equal protections of fundamental rights to

all residents, regardless of citizenship, as a clear recognition that the OSCE stands for

human rights, rather than just citizens’ rights;

26. Applauds the significant efforts of States neighbouring crisis situations to care for

refugees, and calls upon participating States across the OSCE area to increase their efforts

to care for people fleeing their homes out of fear of persecution and personal safety;

27. Deplores the continued fighting by separatist forces in Ukraine, whose illegal actions

have led to thousands of deaths and have had an enormous negative impact on the

humanitarian situation;

28. Condemns the continued occupation by the Russian Federation of the Crimean peninsula,

and the resulting abuses of minorities’ rights, particularly those of Crimean Tatars, and

attempts to silence human rights defenders and independent media;

29. Calls for the recognition of the special and troubling human rights situation of persons

living in occupied territories, and stresses that occupying powers must recognize and live

up to their particular responsibilities in this regard;

30. Calls for the immediate release of Nadiya Savchenko, a Member of Parliament in

Ukraine, from detention in the Russian Federation, on humanitarian grounds;

31. Deplores the persistence of cases of torture and other gross mistreatment within the

OSCE area, and urges all OSCE participating States to guarantee independent monitoring

of detention facilities in order to work towards the complete eradication of torture in the

OSCE area;

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OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

32. Considers the death penalty to be an inhuman and degrading punishment, an act of torture

unacceptable to states respecting human rights, and calls on retentionist states to impose

an immediate moratorium on executions;

33. Encourages participating States to consider adapting their legislation to deal with criminal

terrorists and other similar non-state actors to ensure that basic human rights, including

the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time, are fully respected;

34. Calls upon the United States government, working with other OSCE countries, to step up

efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo, and to reconsider the application of

traditional laws of war in the fight against terrorism in view of the amorphous and open-

ended character of this fight.

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OSCE, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 23: Praktik og procedurer i forbindelse med den årlige session i Helsingfors fra 6. til 10. juli 2015

GENERAL COMMITTEE ON

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN QUESTIONS

PROPOSED AMENDMENT to the DRAFT RESOLUTION

Recalling the Spirit of Helsinki

[Set out text of Amendment here:]

Principal Sponsor:

Mr/Mrs

Family Name in

Capital Letters

Country

Signature

Co-sponsored by:

Mr/Mrs

Family Name in

Capital Letters

Country

Signature

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