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National and international NGOs
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OSCE could grant consultive status to NGOs and INGOs in the form of "Researcher-in-residence programme" (run by the Prague Office of the OSCE Secretariat): accredited representatives of national and international NGOs are granted access to all records and to numerous topical compilations related to OSCE field activities.
Media freedom
The OSCE observes relevant media developments in its participating states with a view to addressing and providing early warning on violations of freedom of expression.
Minority rights
Ethnic conflict is one of the main sources of large-scale violence in Europe today. The OSCE's approach is to identify and to seek early resolution of ethnic tensions, and to set standards for the rights of persons belonging to minority groups and High Commissioner on National Minorities has been established.
Criticism[edit]
Following an unprecedented period of activity in the 1990s and early 2000s (decade), the OSCE has in the past few years faced accusations from the CIS states (primarily Russia) of being a tool for the Western states to advance their own interests. For instance, the events in Ukraine in 2004 (the "Orange Revolution") led to allegations by Russia of OSCE involvement on behalf of the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. At the 2007 Munich Conference on Security Policy, Vladimir Putinmade this position very clear:
"They [unnamed Western States] are trying to transform the OSCE into a vulgar instrument designed to promote the foreign policy interests of one or a group of countries. And this task is also being accomplished by the OSCE's bureaucratic apparatus, which is absolutely not connected with the state founders in any way. Decision-making procedures and the involvement of so-called non-governmental organizations are tailored for this task. These organizations are formally independent but they are purposefully financed and therefore under control".[30][31][32][33]
Also, following the Belorussian Presidential election of 2001, the OSCE denounced the election, claiming it to be neither 'free nor fair'; however, the OSCE had actually refused to observe the vote, and still made the aforementioned claim, despite Gérard Stoudmann of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE acknowledging that there was "no evidence of manipulation or fraud of the results".[ citation needed ]
Russia and its allies are advancing the concept of a comprehensive OSCE reform, which would make the Secretariat, institutions and field presences more centralized and accountable to collective consensus-based bodies and focus the work of the Organization on topical security issues (human trafficking, terrorism, non-proliferation, arms control, etc.), at the expense of the "Human Dimension", or human rights issues. The move to reduce the autonomy of the theoretically independent OSCE institutions, such as ODIHR, would effectively grant a Russian veto over any OSCE activity. Western participating States are opposing this process, which they see as an attempt to prevent the OSCE from carrying out its democratization agenda in post-Soviet countries.[ citation needed ]
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Following the 2008 U.S. presidential election, OSCE's ODIHR was accused of having double standards by Russia's lawmaker Slutsky. The point was made that while numerous violations of the voting process were registered, its criticism came only from within the United States (media, human rights organizations, McCain's election staff), while the OSCE known for its bashing criticism of elections on the post-Soviet space remained silent.[34][35]
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly[edit]
In 2004 the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly sent election observers to the U.S. Presidential elections. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s president at the time was Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings. Hastings had previously been impeached for corruption by the U.S. Congress. The OSCE faced criticism of partisanship and double standards due to Hastings's past and the fact that the OSCE's mandate was to promote democracy and the values of civil society.[36]
In 2010 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe was criticized from within by the Latvian delegation for lacking transparency and democracy. Spencer Oliver (b. 1938) secretary general of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, who has held the post since the organization's inception in 1992, faced a challenge from the Latvian Artis Pabriks. According to the rules of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly the incumbent general secretary can only be replaced with a full consensus minus one. Pabriks called the rules "quite shocking from the perspective of an organization that's monitoring elections".[37]
In 2014 Ilkka Kanerva was elected the president of the OSCE PA. Kanerva had previously been fired from his post as foreign minister of Finland after lying about sending over 200 text messages to an erotic dancer.[38]
In 2012 Kanerva was found guilty of violation of duties and accepting bribes in relation to an election funding scandal and received a three and a half year suspended sentence.[39]
2012 Texas controversy[edit]
Before the U.S. presidential elections of November 2012, the OSCE announced its intention to send electoral observers to Texas and to other U.S. states. In response, Greg Abbott, the Attorney General of Texas, sent letters to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threatening to arrest OSCE officials if they should enter electoral premises in Texas and break Texas law,[40] and to the OSCE.[41] In response, the U.S. Department of State indicated that OSCE observers enjoyed immunities.[42] However no incidents between OSCE and Texas authorities were recorded during the elections.
Allegations of pro-Russian bias (2014)[edit]
OSCE SMM monitoring the movement of heavy weaponry in eastern Ukraine
The organization has come under increasing criticism in the Russian-Ukraine conflict. During the War in Donbass an OSCE observer allowed Russian separatists to use the organization's marked vehicle which prompted the belief that OSCE was bias in the war and not interested in carrying out its duties of mediating a ceasefire. The organization issued a statement regretting the incident.[43] The organization has also been criticized by Ukraine for failing to monitor the implementation of the Minsk Protocol. The agreement called for a creation of a 40 km buffer zone, upon Ukrainian forces withdrawing from their 20 km portion of the buffer Russian separatist simply occupied the abandoned territory without withdrawing in their own 20 km buffer. Likewise there continues to be reports of separatists using OSCE marked vehicles for transportation. Moreover the mission also received criticism that only 2 checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border are currently being monitored which has been described as "seriously inadequate" by Daniel Baerm the US ambassador to the OSCE. The mission has also been criticized for waiting months to deploy drones to help monitor the border as well as withdrawing them after only several weeks of use due to Russian electronic attacks. Ukraine has stated that approximately 80% of the OSCE observers located near Mariupol were Russian citizens and many had ties to Russian security agencies such as the FSB and GRU. The organization has also been accused of revealing the locations of Ukrainian troops to Russian forces during the conflict and that Russian OSCE observers may be directly coordinating separatist artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions.[44][45][46][47][48] On 1 December 2014 an OSCE observer was injured by Ukrainian counter artillery fire while observing militants firing at Ukrainian forces. The OSCE team was located next to two pro Russian mortar teams. The OSCE team did not radio in or record the Russian mortar team firing on Ukrainian positions. Critics stated that the unorthodox behavior of being located next to an active separatist artillery position and not reporting the incident showed that the OSCE team was not acting in an impartial manner.[49]
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The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) dealing with the "human dimension" of security. The Office, originally named Office for Free Elections, was created in 1990 by the Charter of Paris and established in 1991. The name of the office was changed in 1992 to reflect the broadened mandate it received at the 1992 Helsinki Summit.
Based in Warsaw (Poland), ODIHR is active throughout the 57 participating States of the OSCE. It assists governments in meeting their commitments as participating States of the OSCE in the areas of elections, human rights, democracy, rule of law, and tolerance and non-discrimination. The Office also hosts the organization's Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues.
ODIHR is best known for its role in observing elections. It has observed almost 300 elections across the OSCE region and has deployed some 70,000 observers.
The Office organizes the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, Europe's largest human rights conference.
ODIHR's Director is Michael Georg Link. The office has a staff of close to 150.
Contents
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· 1 ODIHR international electoral observer activities
· 2 ODIHR Directors
· 3 References
· 4 External links
ODIHR international electoral observer activities[edit]
·During the United States elections, 2012—following media reports that tied ODIHR international electoral observers to the United Nations and accused them of having plans to interfere in the election—the observers, who said they were in the United States to review several benchmarks of democratic elections, were blocked from polls in nine of the 50 states—Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.[1]
Верхо́вный комиссар по дела́м национа́льных меньши́нств — должностное лицо ОБСЕ. Пост учреждён в 1992 году на Хельсинкском саммите СБСЕ. Управление располагается в Гааге. Основной метод работы — «тихая дипломатия», задачи — раннее предупреждение конфликтов и срочные действия по предотвращению перерастания межэтнической напряжённости в конфликт. Комиссар назначается на трёхлетний период, который может быть продлён не более чем на один трёхлетний срок.
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ВКНМ не рассматривает нарушения обязательств в рамках ОБСЕ в отношении отдельных лиц и не рассматривает вопросы национальных меньшинств в ситуациях, связанных с терроризмом. Проблемы национальных меньшинств в том государстве, гражданином которого является комиссар, и проблемы того национального меньшинства, к которому он принадлежит, он может рассматривать лишь при особом согласии всех непосредственно причастных сторон, включая государство, о котором идёт речь.
Комиссары[править | править вики-текст]
·Макс ван дер Стул (Нидерланды) — с 1 января 1993 по 30 июня 2001.
·Рольф Экеус (англ.) (Швеция) — с 1 июля 2001 по 3 июля 2007.
·Кнут Воллебек (англ.) (Норвегия) — с 4 июля 2007 по 19 августа 2013.
·Астрид Турс (Финляндия) — с 20 августа 2013.[1]
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