Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 36, 2015
This week, the first week after the end of the Summer Recess, there were meetings of the Permanent
Council (PC), the Preparatory Committee (PrepComm) and the Human Dimension Committee. During
the Recess, there were two special meetings of the PC, and a meeting of the PrepComm, as well as two
informal briefings of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM). I attended a side event of the
Balkan Summit on the “Budva Process” – an initiative of Serbian and Kosovar women parliamentarians,
among them PA 3rd Committee Rapporteur Gordana Comic, which was hosted by the Austrian Foreign
Ministry.
The PC approved a decision on the 2015 supplementary budget for the Office for Democratic Institu-
tions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for the local elections in Eastern Ukraine on 25 October 2015.
In his briefing at the PC, the SMM Head, Ambassador Apakan, reported that violence reached new peaks
over the summer, and the number of civilian casualties increased, ceasefire violations had become a
norm, the humanitarian situation in the conflict zone is deteriorating, and the provision of humanitarian
assistance is impeded as the organizations must obtain authorization through a lengthy process. He also
emphasized that SMM’s monitoring capability is compromised as the Mission recently experienced seri-
ous security incidents and faced numerous attempts to impede its work. In addition, the Mission is still
confronted with severe restrictions to its freedom of movement and the jamming and even shooting
down of Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Despite all this, the SMM facilitated a number of local cease-
fires, which enabled the reconstruction of vital infrastructure, in particular of water management facili-
ties.
In the first PC after the Recess, discussions on the crisis in and around Ukraine took place in light of the
renewed ceasefire. Russia continued to blame the Ukrainian side for the cease-fire violations, whereas
most other speakers reminded of the responsibility of Russia for backing the terrorists, and commended
the constitutional changes in approved by the Ukrainian parliament, deploring the fatal attacks during
the protests against the changes. Under Current Issues, most delegations also condemned the court
sentencing against, as well as the abduction, continued illegal detention and alleged ill-treatment of
Ukrainian citizens by the Russian Federation, calling for the release of the detainees.
In addition, USA, EU, Canada and Norway expressed concern over the sentencing of human rights advo-
cates Leyla and Arif Yunus and of Journalist Khadija Ismayilova by Azerbaijani courts, and urged Azerbai-
jan to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, while Azerbaijan questioned the relevance of
this for the PC’s agenda and rejected claims regarding the human rights situation in the country.
OSCE SG Amb. Zannier delivered his report about the implementation of the Gender Action Plan. Ac-
cording to him, there is still a strong reluctance by participating States to present a sufficient number of
qualified female candidates for open posts especially on higher hierarchical levels. For instance, only
two out of the 16 heads of field operations are women. Also, the general share of women has decreased
because of the low level of female staff in the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
September 4, 2015