The Responsibility to Implement
ODIHR Director Christian Strohal (centre) and
junior legal analyst Tamara Otiashvili (left) talk
to a domestic observer at a polling station during
the parliamentary elections in Armenia, 12 May.
on trafficking in human beings, hate-crime
policing, or elections, include specific consideration of Roma and Sinti communities.
commitments, it is institutions like ODIHR
that are best suited to identify shortcomings
and offer assistance to states to remedy the lack
of implementation.
New and old challenges
Our work has also had to adjust to a changing political environment. OSCE states have
taken important decisions over recent years to
address new challenges in the human dimension: combating trafficking in human beings,
racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and other
forms of intolerance, or gender inequality.
Yet the bulk of the OSCE’s human dimension
commitments date back to the 1990s, and to
the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.
As we outlined in our report Common
Responsibility: Commitments and Implementation, published in 2006, a large number of
challenges to democracy and human rights,
the cornerstones of our security concept, still
need to be addressed: in parts of the region, systematic election fraud continues; the freedoms
of assembly and association remain curtailed;
human rights defenders are increasingly under
threat; the fight against terrorism is being
abused as a pretence to suppress fundamental
freedoms; independent media are facing serious restrictions by authorities; and some governments give inadequate attention to prevent
torture and ensure impartial and accessible justice for all. At the same time, migration and displacement are creating new challenges for governments and societies as a whole, as do crimes
resulting from aggressive nationalism, racism,
xenophobia, and anti-Semitism, and the lack of
tangible progress in improving the situation of
Roma and Sinti throughout the OSCE region.
In the face of these challenges, and the inconsistent response to them, some want to conclude that the OSCE is in a crisis. I believe that
the opposite is the case. In times when some
participating States are failing to meet their
ODIHR response
One of my first steps as ODIHR Director was
to create a fully fledged Human Rights Department with a strong monitoring capability and
the ability to strengthen the capacity of officials as well as of NGOs to pursue human
rights issues in their countries. We have now
established a focal point to follow the specific
challenges faced by human rights defenders
and national human rights institutions in our
region.
Another addition to our portfolio was the Tolerance and Non-discrimination Programme,
following an unprecedented series of high-level
OSCE conferences. The programme has now
successfully been developed into an effective
department. In addition to assistance activities, such as training law enforcement officers
in combating hate crime and developing educational materials, the department closely follows
incidents and violent manifestations of racism,
xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of
intolerance. Our annual report on hate crimes
in the region has become a widely used monitoring and early-warning tool, and our TANDIS
website provides a valuable portal to access relevant information, including on best practices.
Human dimension meetings and civil society
Attracted by the possibility of participating
on an equal footing with government representatives, the number of NGOs attending the
human dimension meetings and conferences
organized by ODIHR has reached record levels each year. We have worked hard in making
these meetings, including the annual two-week
Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Annual Report 2007
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