For the Final Outcome Document of the 2011 OSCE Parallel Conference, please click Outcome Document Vilnius final_eng. The Russian version is forthcoming.
Resolution of the OSCE Civil Society Parallel Conference: On the Reaction of the OSCE and the International Community to the Human Rights Crisis in the Republic of Belarus. English version: Statement on Belarus_PC_Vilnius_final 051212_eng, Russian version: Statement on Belarus_PC_Vilnius_051211_final_rus.
Concluding remarks by Director of International Partnership for Human Rights Brigitte Dufour in presentation of the outcome document to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman in Office Concluding Remarks Dufour.
Concluding remarks by Director of the Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights Yuri Dzhibladze in presentation of the outcome document to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman in Office Presentation of OD Dzhibladze.
Closing remarks of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis in acceptance of the Parallel Conference outcome document Closing Remarks OSCE Chairman-in-Office.
Links to related journalism coverage
Parallel Conference participant Intigam Aliyev detained in Istanbul on rout to Azerbaijan: http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/17311.html.
Remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the ministerial: http://vilnius.usembassy.gov/
Coverage by Arkady Dubnov, Moscow News: http://www.mn.ru/world/20111208/308211535.html, Novaya Gazeta: http://www.novgaz.com/index.php/2-news/235-%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%81-%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%80%D0%B0.
December 4-5, Vilnius, Lithuania
Human rights to be discussed by civil society on the eve of OSCE Ministerial Council
Representatives of civil society from across Europe, USA and the former Soviet Union will meet in a ‘Parallel Conference’ in Vilnius on the eve of the 6/ 7 December 2011 meeting of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE. Participants will review the human rights situation in the region, including challenges to media freedom and the freedom of citizens to meet and organize, and threats to democratic processes and the rule of law. They will discuss proposals for OSCE reform and improving implementation of the human dimension commitments by OSCE participating states.
Special attention will be given at the conference to the human rights situation in the Baltic states and to the human rights crisis in Belarus. The session on Belarus, on 5 December from 11:00 to 13:00, is open to public and the media. Attendance at the remainder of the conference is by invitation only. A set of policy recommendations will be presented to the Lithuanian Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE at a public event in the centre of Vilnius in the afternoon of 5 December, venue and time to be announced.
The organizing committee of the Parallel Conference is composed of international and national non-governmental civil society organisations that have a track record in monitoring of and advocating for human rights based on international obligations and commitments of states. Invitations to participate in the conference are also based on this consideration. The committee is a continuation of the coalition that organized the civil society conference in Kazakhstan last year, prior to the OSCE Summit meeting in Astana in December 2010.
The organizers of the conference feel that commitment of citizens is essential in the struggle for human rights. Ever since the Helsinki agreements of 1975, which stand at the root of the OSCE, the involvement of active citizens has been a key driving factor in the promotion and protection of human rights.
The initiative for the Parallel Conference has been enthusiastically received by the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has supported and facilitated this very important gathering.
For a draft of the agenda, please click:
Feedback on the conference agenda can be directed below.
Media inquiries can be directed to:
Will Lasky
wlasky@gmail.com