Madam Chair,
Excellencies, dear participants, colleagues,
I would first like to thank ODIHR and the Chair in Office, as well as our hosts Poland, for their hard work to organize a meeting of this format. Although we regret that consensus on the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting has once again been blocked by Belarus and Russia, this remains unique platform for dialogue between participating states and civil society.
Ever more so as Russia is still waging its illegal and brutal war on democracy at the heart of Europe, in blatant violation of the founding principles of this organization. Its repeated and brutal attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, have devastating impact far beyond Ukraine.
We commend Ukraine’s resilience in defending democratic values and institutions, rule of law and human rights, whilst under constant attack from the Russian aggressor. We call upon the immediate release of the three unlawfully detained SMM-colleagues.
We continue to support all efforts to ensure full accountability for Russia’s violations in Ukraine. We recognize all those who at great risk and in defending our shared values contribute to documenting Russia’s violations.
Journalists, human rights defenders, civil society organizations and ODIHR play key roles in monitoring and holding states accountable to their obligations.
Yet we all have a responsibility to support the development of strong institutions with necessary capacity to ensure effective protection of human rights defenders, and to condemn violence, intimidation and reprisals against them.
We are deeply worried about signs of increasing autocratic rule and shrinking civic space, including media freedom and LGBTQ+ rights, across the OSCE region. This includes the introduction of so-called “foreign agents”-laws as well as a growing number of political prisoners and extensive use of torture and inhuman treatment.
Colleagues,
2024 has been coined the stress test of democracy, with 100 elections globally, 28 in our region. ODHIR’s professional and transparent elections observation teams have seldom been as busy – and as important as right now.
We need to agree on a unified budget and our leadership positions to enable our institutions and field missions to offer that unique experience, methodology and experience from which our democracies benefit tremendously.
This conference represents a unique opportunity to strengthen our democracies. I trust we will seize it.
Thank you.