Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of ODIHR speaks with Michael
Linhart, the Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs of Austria, at the
Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Warsaw, 11 September 2017.
(OSCE/Piotr Markowski)
In the optimistic 1990s there was a
surge of new democracies. However,
over the last decade democracy has
been losing its momentum across the
globe. It may be difficult to escape
the pessimism that accompanies
current discussions on global affairs
and the state of democracy. Today,
we are experiencing resurgent
authoritarianism, weakened liberal
democratic values and rising
populism, but ODIHR is working
hard to help participating States
counter those worrying trends. While
these challenges to democracy are
serious, the quality of and demand
for democracy has improved over the
past 25 years in a number of countries
in the OSCE region. What is more, new
technologies offer new opportunities
to increase the transparency
and accountability of democratic
institutions, as well as to promote the
participation of traditionally underrepresented groups.
All OSCE participating States have
agreed to promote and protect
democratic institutions and
human rights as part of the human
dimension of security. Only strong
democratic institutions and practices,
based on principles of pluralism,
inclusion and the rule of law, can
provide the foundation for societies
in which the rights and interests of
all can be promoted and protected
and sustainable peace and security
ensured. But to help build and
protect these institutions, ODIHR
requires co-operation from all
participating States.
True to its original mission as the
Office for Free Elections, ODIHR
supported participating States in
2017 by observing electoral processes
in 20 countries and making a total
of 434 recommendations on how
those processes could be improved.
ODIHR co-operated with delegations
from the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly, the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe,
the European Parliament, the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly and the
Congress for Local and Regional
Authorities of the Council of Europe.
To help participating States improve
the public and political participation
of persons with disabilities, ODIHR
published a set of guidelines entitled
Persons with Disabilities and Ensuring
their Right to Participate in Public and