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IHF Publications IHF Yearly Campaign IHF Activities Priority Regions and Countries 2006 - 2007
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PART I: OPENING
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mr. aaron rhodes (ihf)
“The OSCE should face the truth”
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Report by Ms. Lamija Muzurovic (IHF)
Dr. Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), describes the mandate of the IHF as promoting the human dimension commitments made by the OSCE-participating states and monitoring their compliance.
People living in the OSCE area need the OSCE process to work, because so many are denied the basic civil and political rights that are necessary to solve the major social and economic problems they’re having. Economic growth nor security are possible in countries where human rights are threatened or denied. This is shown clearly by the increasing poverty and violence in those societies where citizens are denied their rights. Real democracy does not function in numerous participating states. A number of authoritarian, dynastic governments masquerade as democracies instead. All too often, their partners in the OSCE accept this masquerade to the detriment of long-term reform. Twenty-eight years after the Helsinki Final Act, many leaders still talk about human rights issues as “internal affairs” of their own societies. Civil society in these countries becomes alienated and frustrated with the process. And if the civil society community loses hope in the process, the hopes for the future will dim further.
Mr. Rhodes says that an effective strategy to ensure security is formed by promotion of human rights and increasing the possibilities for civil society to contribute to peaceful change. However, many people argue that it is necessary to trade human rights protections for security and to temporise human rights protection, which is absurd, so many years after the collapse of communism. Representatives in the OSCE don’t help their constituencies to enjoy security and prosperity when they ignore human rights violations and weaken the integrity of international standards. In the long term, it is not expedient to avoid the truth. Facing the truth, while perhaps not an agreeable process, is the best strategy for improving human rights and general human welfare.
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