OSCE conference on human dimension commitments
This year the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act! The OSCE marks the date by organizing a 10-day conference dedicated to the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms across the OSCE area. The conference started on October 6 in Warsaw, Poland and will last until the October 17th. The conference is organized by the OSCE Finish Chairpersonship 2025 with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
During the conference participants are discussing current developments and their consequences in the OSCE region, as well as the ongoing importance of the Helsinki principles and OSCE’s human dimension commitments for the region’s common security. The conference is offering a platform to evaluate the implementation of commitments across the 57 OSCE participating States, and provides a forum to exchange views, share good practices, and raise issues for the attention of the international community.
Participants are provided the opportunity to address the entirety of the OSCE human dimension commitments during plenary sessions and side events, covering democratic institutions, the rule of law, tolerance and non-discrimination, fundamental freedoms, and humanitarian issues.
The Director of International and Comparative Law Center (I.C.Law Center), human rights defender Mrs. Siranush Sahakyan together with Philipp Raffi Kalfayan, the representative of the Center, have taken active part in the conference sessions. Our colleagues from Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) with Garen Jinbachyan, the Community Coordinator of ANCA as a representative, as well as colleagues from The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy were also present at the conference sessions.
For the I.C.Law Center, the OSCE conference was another platform to bring attention of international community to situation of hostages kept in Baku, to the discriminatory policy of Azerbaijan to this matter and to false court hearings. According to the Director Mrs. Sahakyan, Armenian hostages are targeted not for their actions, but rather for their identity. The human rights defender also refuted the false theses of the Azerbaijani delegation present during the conference.
"Azerbaijan deprives Armenian hostages of the opportunity to have independent lawyers", argued Sahakyan in her speech, "the court hearings are not independent and impartial and resemble staged performances of humiliation." As she went on in her talk, she added, "Meanwhile, the Government of Azerbaijan assures the participants of this conference that Armenian prisoners enjoy all rights, including the opportunity to establish contact with lawyers". Sahakyan noted, "The reality is that Baku has rejected my request, as an ECtHR authorized representative of this hostages, to meet with the prisoners. For 5 years in a row, the number of "permitted" meetings is equal to zero. If "protection of rights" is like this, then we can imagine the state of all other rights to a fair trial in Azerbaijan." concluded her speech Sahakyan.
Other representatives of civil society where also representing Armenia at the conference. After the sessions, the human rights defenders from Armenia held separate meetings with delegations of OSCE states, during which they also raised the issue of Armenian hostages held in Azerbaijan and informed them about the illegal and fabricated court hearings taking place in Baku.
Follow the link to watch the speech of Siranush Sahakyan at OSCE Conference: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JwcGFkD72/
