A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR
As always, the CSCE is evolving to meet new challenges. Recently approved administrative
changes include the establishment of a "Single Organisational Structure,” which consolidates many of
the CSCE's personnel and activities in Vienna. This consolidation will not result, however, in any
diminution of the office in Warsaw. On the contrary, the ODIHR is growing yet again. Following
recommendations made by the CSCE's Implementation Meeting, which were approved in December by
our Council of Ministers in Rome, the ODIHR in Warsaw has expanded its mandate and will soon
increase its staff.
At the Rome Council, the Foreign Ministers reiterated that human dimension issues are
fundamental to the comprehensive security of the entire CSCE community. They stressed that the
further implementation of human dimension commitments must be the focus of attention in the CSCE's
conflict prevention efforts. Toward this end, they directed the ODIHR to expand its database of experts
in the areas of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, drawing increasingly on the expertise of
non-governmental organisations. In addition, the ODIHR was given increased authority in the area of
comprehensive election monitoring and was given increased responsibility to disseminate information
on international humanitarian law.
Other important changes approved by the Ministers included improvement of the streamlining
and improvement of the Human Dimension Mechanism (described in the Moscow Document) which is
the CSCE's procedure for sending expert missions to investigate and make recommendations about
human rights and related problems in any CSCE state. They called for the expansion of the list of
experts available from each CSCE state from three to six; they empowered the newly-established
Permanent Committee in Vienna to trigger the Mechanism and to take follow-up action based on the
experts' reports. All these changes make the Moscow Mechanism more flexible and more responsive to
immediate needs in the region.
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The ODIHR was pleased with the praise offered by the Council of Ministers for the four
Human Dimension seminars which it has held thus far in Warsaw, especially the recent seminar on the
Free Media. Future seminars are now guaranteed to be even more successful, as the Ministers agreed to
empower the CSCE's Committee of Senior Officials and the Permanent Committee in Vienna to
consider important follow-up activities to the seminars. This will allow the ODIHR to organise concrete
programs in response to the needs expressed at the seminars by the new democracies. Upcoming
Human Dimension seminars this year will address the subjects of migrant workers, local democracy,
and Roma in the CSCE region. The ODIHR will also host a seminar in Warsaw on preventive
diplomacy and will assist the Republic of Kazakhstan to organise a seminar on human dimension issues
in Central Asia. .
Luchino Cortese
ODIHR Director
CSCE ODIHR BULLETIN Vol. 2, No. 1
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