THE OSCE CHALLENGED - NHC/IHF

PART VII: EVALUATION
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mr.jan ter laak (?) (netherlands helsinki committee):
“An important step forward”

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Mr. Jan ter Laak, one of the organizers of the NGO conference, offers a review of its history, its proceedings, and the OSCE Netherlands Chairmanship in general.
Although disappointed in the lack of contact between OSCE and NGO delegates, Mr. Ter Laak calls the combination of the two meetings “an important step forward”, for which he duly praises the Netherlands OSCE Chairmanship. Next time, however, the NGO meeting should precede the Ministerial Council, he advises. In that way, the NGO conclusions and recommendations could be incorporated in the Council’s agenda.
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The NGO conference’s history
On May 12, 2003, the Netherlands OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office met with several international NGOs in Vienna. Directly afterwards, the idea came up to organize an NGO conference parallel to the OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs was willing to facilitate such a conference and offered accommodation in the MECC, where the Ministerial Council was going to take place as well. The Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced this plan in his speech to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (which took place on July 5-9, 2003 in Rotterdam). The parallel NGO conference was to be organized jointly by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

The conference’s program combined the priorities of the parties concerned. The IHF was planning to use this meeting to highlight the human rights situation in Chechnya, partly as follow-up to an IHF fact-finding mission to Ingushetia and Chechnya in September 2003 (at the time, the IHF still had hopes that the Netherlands Chairmanship-in-Office would set up once again an OSCE Mission to Chechnya; in that case, the formal decision would be made in Maastricht).
Trafficking in human beings was a priority for the Netherlands Chairmanship, as it was for the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. After Ms. Anne Offermans was appointed member of the Committee’s board, it had national and international experience on the subject at its disposal. Ms. Offermans took on the responsibility of organizing the focal group on trafficking. She found various experts willing to travel to Maastricht, both from the Netherlands and from other countries in the OSCE region.

In the OSCE context, the Netherlands has been active for years in the field of freedom of religion; a field which took on new importance after the emergence of religiously motivated international terrorism. The focal group’s quality was secured by cooperation with the Dutch Platform for international Freedom of Religion.

Apart from these three focal groups, an informal gathering concerning Full and Equal Rights for Roma and Sinti was planned. An important subject, as well as one of the priorities of the Netherlands Chairmanship. This subject didn’t figure very prominently in the Conference’s program, though, as plans were being made for another, big conference on the implementation of the “OSCE Action plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti”.

Professor Cees Flinterman, director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (to the Netherlands government) was found willing to chair the conference. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaap de Hoop Scheffer promised to address the parallel NGO conference and to be presented with the first copy of the report “Seminar on Human Rights and Terrorism”. The incoming OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Bulgarian Minister Solomon Passi was invited to join the conference (regrettably, due to some misunderstanding, in the end he was unable to). Several OSCE officials took on the invitation to contribute to the conference (including Ambassador Daan Everts, Ambassadeur Christian Strohal en Mr. Freimut Duve, OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media). More than 100 NGO representatives registered.

The NGO conference
The conference’s title was: “OSCE Priorities and Perspectives from Civil Society”. Some participants characterized the conference as “a unique event in the history of the Helsinki process”, as this was the first time ever that an NGO conference was held parallel to the OSCE Ministerial Council. Many human rights activists were present from regions into which the OSCE puts much effort: Central Asia, Moldova, the Caucasus, and Belarus. The conference gave them ample opportunities to inform their colleagues from other regions. Sound keynote-speeches were delivered, all three focal groups proceeded smoothly, and they resulted in useful recommendations (all to be found in this booklet). Furthermore, the evening-programme was very lively, including meetings with local human rights groups and peace groups, meetings with the local university staff and a very warm welcoming speech by the Mayor of Maastricht.

In short, a very successful conference? Yes and no. As an NGO conference, is was a success, but as a parallel conference to the OSCE Ministerial Council, it was not. OSCE delegates and NGOs made hardly any contact at all in Maastricht; some NGO representatives were allowed to be present at the opening and the closing of the Ministerial Council. That was all, due to security measures and the absence of informal meeting-places. Lobbying was out of the question. Regrettably, because giving opportunities for lobbying was the very reason to combine the two meetings in the first place. Just a few OSCE diplomats were able to find the (unmarked) way to the NGO conference. Among those, a representative from the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands, who listened carefully to all debates on the Caucasus (Chechnya), Central Asia, and Russia.
Several documents from the NGO conference were passed to the OSCE delegations, through the Netherlands OSCE Liaison Officer.
The NGO conference did not receive much attention of the media, either. This was probably caused by the short duration of the Ministerial Council (24 hours, approximately) the nightly debates on Georgia and Moldova, and other topical issues, such as the attendance both of US Foreign Minister Powell and the Acting President of Georgia Ms. Nini Burjanadze.

Despite all this, organizing such a parallel conference should be regarded as an important step forward, which wouldn’t have been possible without the full support of the Netherlands Chairmanship.
As to the next Ministerial Council to be held in Sophia in 2004, it would be advisable to organize an NGO meeting before the OSCE Ministerial Council, not simultaneously. In this way, it would be possible to put the conclusions and recommendations of the NGO meeting on the agenda of the OSCE meeting. Furthermore, a small NGO delegation (6-10 members) could attend the Ministerial Council as observers.

A brief evaluation of the Netherlands OSCE Chairmanship
Even before this book has been published, several articles have been published, evaluating the OSCE Ministerial Council. Opinions vary from “historic” (?) to “failure” (?). In general, the Netherlands OSCE Chairmanship is described in moderately positive terms. Especially the Netherlands are praised for putting Trafficking in Human Beings on the agenda as a Pan-European problem.
Seen from a human rights perspective, the focus of the NGO conference, there is not much cause for satisfaction. Russia has blocked OSCE involvement in Chechnya. In Central Asia, the Caucasus and Belarus, independent journalists and human rights activists are arrested, kidnapped or killed. NGO will have to continue to draw the OSCE’s and other international organization’s attention to these violations of human rights.
Personally, I’m well-pleased that the Netherlands Chairmanship cooperated so closely and openly with NGOs, thereby strengthening their role within the OSCE. I sincerely hope that the next OSCE Chairmen-in-Office (of Bulgaria (2004), Slovenia (2005) and Belgium (2006)) will continue in this vein.

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