OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO REPORT OF

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 026035

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM OSCE
SUBJECT: OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO REPORT OF
ODIHR DIRECTOR LENARCIC


1. (U) Post is authorized to present the following statement
at the Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on March 19.

Begin text:

Madam Chairwoman,

Thank you, Ambassador Lenarcic for your comprehensive report.
The United States strongly supports ODIHR, which has earned
its place as a key institution in the OSCE's efforts to
promote democratic development, human rights and free and
fair elections.

At a time when core human dimension commitments are
increasingly being called into question, as was so
convincingly argued in ODIHR's November 10, 2006 Common
Responsibility Report submitted to the OSCE Ministerial
Council, the role played by the ODIHR in promoting respect
for human rights, providing objective assessments of the
conduct of elections and supporting the development of
democratic institutions, is as critical as it has ever been.
Ambassador Lenarcic, the United States encourages ODIHR to
focus even more sharply on those core elements of its
mandate. In doing so, the United States suggests that the
ODIHR should prioritize those areas where OSCE commitments
are the most clearly defined, and that ODIHR projects should
focus on those countries where the gap between commitments
and practices as well as the potential for progress are the
greatest.

The ODIHR should continue its valuable reporting, exemplified
in its joint assessment with the HCNM of human rights in the
war-affected areas of Georgia. Serious human rights and
humanitarian concerns remain in the zone of conflict, and
will continue if not promptly addressed. Accordingly, we
encourage the ODIHR and the HCNM to return to Georgia, and
especially to the Akhalgori region of South Ossetia, to
monitor efforts to implement the report's recommendations.

ODIHR's well-deserved reputation for election monitoring is
directly attributable to its well-known, objective criteria
and procedures for election observation. All participating
States have an interest in opposing any effort to undermine
ODIHR's autonomy and impartiality, as well as any attempts to
turn back the clock on the progress we have made in
democratic practices within the OSCE region. The United
States has been, and will continue to be, in the forefront of
States protecting ODIHR from political interference. In this
regard, we believe that the ODIHR has done an excellent job
in fully responding to the taskings given in Brussels
Ministerial Decision 19/06.

We were pleased also to learn that there is a prospect for
the resumption of the usually amicable cooperation and
collaboration in election observation missions between the
ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly based on the 1997
Cooperation Agreement. Unlike other parliamentary assemblies
that may join OSCE election observation missions, the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly is in a privileged status since it
shares a leadership role with the ODIHR. We appreciate the
efforts of the Greek Chairmanship in this regard, as well as
the constructive approach of both ODIHR and the Parliamentary
Assembly in these discussions. We continue to believe that
both of these OSCE institutions play a critical role each
providing unique and necessary expertise, and that our
Organization is best served when we all speak with one voice
and work together is a spirit of complementary partnership,
cooperation and collaboration.

The universally respected ODHIR objectivity and expertise and
professionalism in election monitoring can and should be made
available to countries outside the OSCE, especially to our
Partners for Cooperation, whose fate greatly matters to our
common security. We note that Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, invited the OSCE
to support the upcoming Presidential Election in that
country, as it has in 2004 and 2005. We encourage the
Chairmanship and the ODIHR to respond positively and
dynamically to this request, and to make OSCE able to bring
appropriate elections support to Afghanistan.

The Democracy program projects are well designed and
implemented and provide emerging democracies with much needed
technical assistance in promoting the rule of law, developing
transparent legislative processes, and building civil
society. With our increased focus on strengthening
democratic institutions and respect for the rule of law in

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2009, on the basis of Helsinki Ministerial Decision 7/08, we
anticipate much greater activity by this program.

In our view, the Human Rights program should focus more on
the broad fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of
expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. We
look forward to the upcoming Supplemental Human Dimension
Meeting on Freedom of Religion which is to have a rights
based focus. As was clearly shown in the recent roundtable
on discrimination against Christians, a rights-based focus on
the freedom of religion has been long neglected by the ODIHR.
The Human Rights program should develop technical assistance
and training programs for the emerging democracies on how to
ensure that fundamental freedoms are respected.

ODIHR's tolerance work should focus on the priority areas of
combating intolerance in those areas where the participating
States have reached consensus - combating anti-Semitism,
intolerance and discrimination against Muslims, Christians
and members of other religions, and racism, xenophobia and
related intolerance. We also believe the Director of ODIHR
should be prepared to highlight key concerns and current
issues that may arise in areas covered by ODIHR's mandate.
In this regard, we applaud your February 27 statement of
concern about continuing attacks targeting Roma. We urge
ODIHR to energize and strengthen its activities in responding
to and ameliorating continued discrimination and attacks on
Roma in the OSCE region.

In our view, the ODIHR effort to deal with hate crimes should
focus on realistic, specific targeted initiatives that will
help address the problem of core definitions, model
legislation to meet OSCE commitments, data collection methods
based on this model legislation, and a sharing of best
practices.

Civil society participation is the foundation of the
effective review of the implementation of human dimension
commitments by participating States. ODIHR must set an
example of inclusiveness of NGOs and transparency at all
ODIHR-organized events and meetings.

We look forward to working with you Ambassador Lenarcic, and
the participating States, in the implementation of our OSCE
Human Dimension commitments. We applaud ODIHR for its
excellent work, and you will continue to have our full
support in the coming years.

Thank you Madam Chairwoman.
CLINTON