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Home , Andrei Sannikov, Vienna, Yulia Tymoshenko

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Number 423 Current Information from the OSCE PA International Secretariat 29 February 2012 Prisons, economic crisis and arms control focus of Meeting

The panel of the General Committee on Democracy, Human The panel of the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Rights and Humanitarian Questions on 23 February. Science, Technology and Environment on 23 February.

The 11th Winter Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary the vice-chairs on developments related to the 2011 Assembly opened on 23 February in Vienna with a meeting Declaration. of the PA’s General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights The Standing Committee of Heads of Delegations met on and Humanitarian Questions, in which former UN Special 24 February to hear reports of recent OSCE PA activities, as Rapporteur on Manfred Nowak took part, along with well as discuss upcoming meetings and election observation. Bill Browder, , and Iryna Bogdanova. After a discussion of the 4 presidential election in Committee Chair Matteo Mecacci () noted the impor- , President Efthymiou decided to deploy a small OSCE tance of highlighting individual stories to “drive home the PA delegation to observe. urgency of human rights.” In this regard, Browder spoke Treasurer Roberto Battelli presented to the Standing Com- about the case of his former attorney, the late Sergei Magnit- mittee the audited accounts of the Assembly for the past finan- sky, who died in pre-trial detention in Russia. cial year. The report of the Assembly’s outside independent Eugenia Tymoshenko discussed the case of her mother, professional auditor has given a positive assessment on the former Ukrainian Prime Yulia Tymoshenko, cur- PA´s financial management and the audit once again did not rently serving a seven-year prison sentence. Lucia Uva talked result in any qualification. Battelli also emphasized that for about the case of her brother Giuseppe Uva, who died in police the 19th year in a row the Assembly has stayed within the custody in Italy; and Bogdanova, sister of former Belarusian approved budget. presidential candidate and opposition leader Andrei Sannikov, Secretary General Spencer Oliver reported on the activi- gave a heartfelt presentation on behalf of her brother, who ties of the International Secretariat, highlighting the support it is serving a five-year sentence for protesting following the provides to presidential visits and the work of special repre- December 2010 election. sentatives and ad hoc committees. He also pointed to the PA’s In his address to the opening joint session, Assembly Pres- successful research fellowship programme and the effective ident Petros Efthymiou spoke of the need for governments work done by the Assembly’s Liaison Office in Vienna. to respect the rule of law, particularly in prison systems, and The Winter Meeting concluded with a joint session of the called for better protection of freedom online. three committees, with presentations by Representative of the President of the Austrian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of State For European called on the parliamentarians to protect and strengthen Affairs of Ireland, Lucinda Creighton; OSCE High Commis- OSCE commitments, especially in the human dimension, sioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek and OSCE PA while OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier highlighted Special Representative on Gender Issues Hedy Fry. the need to strengthen relations between the Parliamentary A special debate on conventional arms control in Assembly and the OSCE’s executive structures. included participation from Damian R. Leader, an arms con- In the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, trol expert from the ; Anton Mazur, Head of the Technology and Environment, chaired by Serhiy Shevchuck Russian Delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military (), parliamentarians debated the economic and finan- Security and Arms Control; and Mathew Geertsen, Senior cial crisis in Europe. The meeting of the General Committee Forum for Security Co-operation Support Officer of the on Political Affairs and Security, chaired by Karl-Georg Well- OSCE Conflict Prevention Center. More than a dozen parlia- mann (), included a discussion on the fight against mentarians participated in the debate. terrorism and with briefings by UN and OSCE officials. The two-day meeting brought together 241 parliamentar- The committees also heard presentations by committee ians from 54 OSCE participating States, plus several from the rapporteurs on their plans for resolutions and reports for the Mediterranean Partners. The meeting was streamed online for Annual Session in , as well as follow-up reports from the first time, drawing around 2,000 viewers.

For further information: Secretary General R. Spencer Oliver, Director of Communications Neil Simon, E-mail [email protected] or Editorial Director Nat Parry, E-mail [email protected], Tel: +45 33 37 80 40, Fax: +45 33 37 80 30.