2001 Policy Archive

U.S. Mission to OSCE Statement on OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly (Aug. 30, 2001)

Statement by Charge d'affaires Douglas A. Davidson to the Permanent Council

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

My delegation would like to join those who have spoken before me in welcoming Mr. Severin here today. As always, we appreciate his reporting on the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly and his views on the PA, the OSCE, and on strengthening our cooperation.

We believe that parliamentarians have an important role to play in the OSCE in building democracy. This includes through links with parliaments of transition States, elections observation, and specialized programs such as the "democracy teams."

The United States strongly supports the role that the Parliamentary Assembly will assume in Belarus within the European Parliamentary Troika and together with ODIHR [OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights] in observing the upcoming Presidential Election in Belarus.

Both the Parliamentary Assembly and ODIHR's intense engagement on Belarus complement their strong observation credentials demonstrated on repeated occasions within the OSCE region.

We look forward to receiving the definitive international observation report that the Parliamentary Troika will produce with ODIHR and deliver on behalf of the OSCE regarding Belarusian compliance with OSCE standards.

We believe that the conduct of free and fair elections consistent with international standards is essential to producing a resolution concerning Belarusian representation in the Parliamentary Assembly. We hope the upcoming election will help advance that process.

We also take note of the resolution in the Paris declaration concerning strengthening transparency and accountability in the OSCE. We believe that doing so is extremely important, and in all of our interests. We must ensure that the OSCE as an organization is accountable for the way it manages the resources that we participating States provide. We also need to ensure that staffing procedures are transparent.

Toward that end, we note the good progress the Secretary General has made in strengthening the OSCE's administrative capabilities. Speaking as an American, I can assure you that our Congress in the United States expects that U.S. contributions to the OSCE will be used effectively, and will also be fully accounted for. This is an objective we both share and we are pursuing with other delegations around this table.

We also agree that the OSCE should consider opening its meetings as far as possible to the public. As Ambassador Johnson said last week during the meeting on increasing the visibility of the OSCE, although there are times when we need to deliberate in private, the Permanent Council could be opened for observation.

We further note the resolution on Combating Corruption and International Crime in the OSCE Region, and agree that -- among other things -- we need to focus more effort on promoting transparency and accountability of public officials, public participation in the legislative process, the strengthening of independent judicial systems, and promotion of transparent and fair electoral processes.

We agree that OSCE States need to work harder to prevent the use of torture, to implement their commitments regarding freedom of the media -- including, as the Paris Declaration points out -- through the elimination of criminal defamation laws, and to work together to combat trafficking in human beings.

We welcome contributions the Parliamentary Assembly can make in working with parliamentarians across the OSCE region to help adopt legislation and concrete measures to implement those commitments on the local and national level.

Thank you very much.