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Civil Society Recommendations to the Participants of the Osce Ministerial Council Meeting in Basel, 4-5 December 2014

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Civil Society Recommendations to the Participants of the Osce Ministerial Council Meeting in Basel, 4-5 December 2014 CIVIL SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE OSCE MINISTERIAL COUNCIL MEETING IN BASEL, 4-5 DECEMBER 2014 civicsolidarity.org CIVIL SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE OSCE MINISTERIAL COUNCIL MEETING IN BASEL, 4-5 DECEMBER 2014 The Civic Solidarity Platform, a network of more than 60 human rights NGOs from throughout the OSCE region,1 convened the 2014 OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference in Basel on 2-3 December, building upon the tradition of OSCE parallel civil society conferences in Astana in 2010, Vilnius in 2011, Dublin in 2012, and Kiev in 2013. At the conference, activists from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, France, Finland, Georgia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the USA discussed and adopted the attached policy document, developed by the Civic Solidarity Platform and containing civil society analysis and recommendations on alarming human dimension issues across the OSCE region, on human dimensions issues in Switzerland, in light of the country’s OSCE Chairmanship, and human dimensions issues in Serbia, in light of the country’s incoming OSCE Chairmanship. It also includes reflections on the impact of the crisis in Ukraine on comprehensive security in Europe as well as recommendations for enhanced engagement of civil society in the OSCE work. Many of the recommendations are based on results of the work of regional OSCE civil society workshop, held throughout 2014 in Belgrade, Vienna, Dushanbe, and Tbilisi. They were organized jointly by the Civic Solidarity Platform and local civil society organisations with support from the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship and brought together more than 150 representatives of civil society organisations from across the OSCE region as well as experts from international NGOs and OSCE institutions. The outcome document is addressed to governments of the OSCE participating States that will be gathering in Basel for this year’s meeting of the Ministerial Council, as well as all the OSCE political bodies and institutions, including the current and the incoming Chairmanships, the Permanent Council, the Human Dimension Committee, ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, and the OSCE field missions. We hope that this analysis and the recommendations that flow from it will be studied carefully at the Ministerial Council meeting and in the work of OSCE. We look forward to reaction from all interested stakeholders. While some of our recommendations may be implemented immediately, others relate to systemic problems and will require consistent effort over a longer period of time. We express our commitment as civil society actors to continue to actively engage in the work of OSCE in the spirit of the Helsinki Principles and our determination to contribute to the full realization of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law throughout the OSCE region. 1 The Civic Solidarity Platform was established in December 2011 in Vilnius on the eve of the OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference. Since then it has grown to more than 60 member organisations from across the OSCE region. For more information about the Civic Solidarity Platform please visit the Platform’s web site civicsolidarity.org. The core group of the founders of the Platform had organized earlier the OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference in Astana on the eve of the OSCE Summit in December 2010 and has been organising OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conferences since then. For outcome documents of the OSCE Parallel Conferences in Astana, Vilnius, Dublin and Kiev visit http://civicsolidarity.org/page/osce-parallel-civil-society-conferences-outcome-documents. 1 Contents: Comprehensive Security in the OSCE region: The Effects of 2014 Events 3 Civic Solidarity Platform’s Human Dimension Priorities for 2015 7 Alarming Trends in Observation of Fundamental Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Freedom of expression 11 Freedom of assembly 15 Freedom of association 19 Security of human rights defenders 23 Combating intolerance, discrimination, hate crime and hate speech 27 Prevention of torture 35 Enforced Disappearances 45 Independence of the judiciary, right to fair trial and the problem of politically motivated persecution 49 The right to privacy and protection of personal data 55 The right to free and fair elections 59 Human Dimension Issues in Switzerland 63 Human Dimension Issues in Serbia, Requiring Special Attention 71 Enhancing Civil Society Input in OSCE Activities 79 Basel Declaration: Rising Intolerance, Discrimination, and Hate Crimes Pose a Major Risk for Security and Require a Coordinated Response from the OSCE 85 2 Comprehensive Security in the OSCE Region: The Effects of the 2014 Events It is four years now since the heads of state and government of the OSCE participating States solemnly recommitted themselves “to the vision of a free, democratic, common and indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, rooted in agreed principles, shared commitments and common goals” (Astana Commemorative Declaration, 3 December 2010). They said that “each participating State has an equal right to security. We reaffirm the inherent right of each and every participating State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements, including treaties of alliance, as they evolve.” Today the vision expressed in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 is more imperiled than ever. One of the most powerful states in the OSCE, the Russian Federation, is increasingly operating in a manner at odds with the principles confirmed time and again since 1975. The year 2014 witnessed gross violations of the positions reconfirmed explicitly as recently as in 2010. While the 2010 statement said that no state, group of states or organization “can consider any part of the OSCE area as its sphere of influence”, precisely the “need” for such a sphere of influence is used as an argument for armed interference, invasion, occupation and annexation, accompanied by gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. As the conflict in Ukraine has developed, such violations have, unfortunately, been committed by all parties, in the process alienating many of the people they pretend to protect and increasing polarization and hatred. There also seems a real danger of other, “frozen” conflicts heating up in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine. Millions of citizens have been subjected to lawlessness and to serious danger of humanitarian disaster. The primary goal of each and every party and person in the conflict should be to reverse this situation. Ukraine should recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, creating a safety net with respect to prosecution and punishment of gross human rights abuses and war crimes. Civil society activists working peacefully and unarmed to assist civilians and document the human rights situation should not be harmed or hindered by the parties, neither should journalists be murdered or held captive. It is high time for a return to respect for the basic principle of the OSCE: peaceful rather than violent resolution of conflicts. The capacity of the OSCE as a unique forum “for promoting open dialogue, preventing and settling conflicts, building mutual understanding and fostering co-operation” (once again a quote from the Astana Declaration) should be exploited to the full. Mutual understanding in the Helsinki spirit applies not just to state leaders and officials but to all citizens. In the current crisis a first step towards mutual understanding is the provision of impartial, non-propagandistic information. The OSCE, with its Special Monitoring Mission, is in a unique position to contribute such information, and ways should be sought to expand this capacity, including through direct broadcasting to the region. The OSCE mission’s size, composition and equipment should be adapted to make this possible. Citizens working in the conflict zone to assist victims of violence, monitor human rights and raise abuses with the parties to the conflict merit special attention from the OSCE mission; they are in a vulnerable position and yet their work is of great importance, including their ability to provide valuable information about the situation of civilians to the OSCE mission. *** 3 Concerns about the situation of minorities in other states are not illegitimate. As with all OSCE principles and commitments, the rights of minorities are one of the “matters of immediate and legitimate concern”, as noted in the Astana Declaration. To deal with problems in this area, however, the services of the High Commissioner on National Minorities should be called on rather than force or the threat of force. The HCNM’s Bolzano/Bozen Recommendations on National Minorities in Inter-State Relations should guide the behavior of the Russian Federation in the conflict with Ukraine and in its concerns about minorities in other neighbouring countries. A series of other HCNM Recommendations provides guidance to states on their policies towards minorities on their own territories, and are relevant to both states involved in the current conflict. This conflict once again demonstrates how disrespect for OSCE commitments in inter-state relations is accompanied by, indeed made possible by, internal disrespect
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