U.S. Experts Europe's Largest Human Rights Conference Will Take Place This Year Despite Russia's Objections

Washington D.C./26.07.23/Turan:    The U.S. ambassador to the OSCE on Tuesday said that he expects North Macedonia, the current chair of the organization, will decide to move forward with the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) this fall, despite Russia's obstruction.

"Russia generally opposes most initiatives that have to deal with human rights and democracy on the OSCE," Ambassador Michael Carpenter told TURAN's Washington correspondent during a briefing organized by the State Department's Foreign Press Center.

Last year, the Polish chair in office of the OSCE decided, despite Russia's objections, to hold the annual conference in Warsaw over the two-week period as it was done in the past.

"We had 1,100 civil society activists from Vancouver to Vladivostok show up and engage in the sorts of accountability and discussions, frankly, amongst themselves as well as networking for which this event is well known," Carpenter recalled, adding that he expects North Macedonia will replicate this decision this fall, "because at the end of the day, we can't allow one participating state that is bent on violating all the norms of the OSCE to hold the rest of the organization hostage, and we will move forward with these sorts of activities."

The annual HDIM is a signature event that takes place every year in the fall – September, October – where civil society organizations from around the OSCE participating states attend in order to hold governments accountable to the commitments that they undertook both in the Helsinki Final Act, as well as in the Charter of Paris and other OSCE documents. 

Alex Raufoglu