UNCLAS STATE 114010

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OSCE PREL PGOV
SUBJECT: OSCE: RESPONSE TO THE CHAIRMANSHIP,S PERSONAL
REPRESENTATIVES FOR TOLERANCE


1. (U) Post is authorized to deliver the following statement
at the November 5, 2009, Permanent Council meeting in Vienna:

Begin text:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The United States welcomes the Chairmanship's Personal
Representatives for Tolerance, Ambassador Adil Akhmetov, Mr.
Mario Mauro and Rabbi Andrew Baker to the Permanent Council
and thanks them for their valuable work to combat intolerance
and discrimination across the OSCE region.

The United States strongly supports the efforts of the
Personal Representatives. Their work is at the very heart of
the OSCE's principles and commitments. The promotion of
tolerance, understanding and non-discrimination empowers
healthy societies and fosters respect among different
communities, in turn allowing states to become more stable,
secure and prosperous.

We are honored that on October 13 and 14, the Personal
Representatives chose the United States for their first joint
country visit. We assured them of our government's commitment
to combating hate crimes and the intolerance that underlie
them across our country. While in Washington, the
Representatives had full and complete access to meet with
anyone they wished and they had a full program.

Madam Chairwoman, we continue to be concerned about the
increase in hate crimes throughout the OSCE region. We urge
redoubled efforts to combat discrimination based on religion,
race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender
identity, or disability and to better position law
enforcement to identify and prosecute hate crimes. We support
improved collection of disaggregated, specific hate crime
statistics and the enactment and implementation of hate crime
legislation.

We strongly encourage the incoming Chairmanship to continue
the mandate of the Personal Representatives for Tolerance.
The United States supports the proposal for a high-level
conference on tolerance, within the framework of a robust
human dimension program in 2010.

The United States will continue to support the Chairmanship's
Personal Representatives, both politically and financially.
We expect the Representatives will continue their work to
encourage tolerance and non-discrimination throughout the
OSCE area and promote dialogue among governments and within
societies on how best to accommodate minority communities and
protect each individual's fundamental rights and freedoms. We
urge the Personal Representatives to draw attention to
positive steps undertaken by countries to promote
inter-religious harmony, protection of minorities, tolerance
education and interfaith dialogue, while also shining light
on governments' failures to counteract negative trends
leading to an increase in intolerance, discrimination or
violent manifestations of hate. We also encourage the
Personal Representatives to extend their work across the OSCE
region. We welcome their constructive input on our own
country, and urge other participating States to do the same.

We thank the Personal Representatives for their presentations
today and we look forward to the release of the joint country
report on their recent visit to the United States.

Thank you, Madam Chair.
CLINTON