This is the first part of a three-part review conference ahead of the OSCE Summit to be held in Astana on 1-2 December 2010, in which NHC also will take part. Project-coordinator Lene Wetteland and recently appointed program manager of our Almaty office Parvina Abduvakhobova will be at the conference and will present several NHC interventions.
The review conference, which this year replaces the annual OSCE Human Dimensions Implementation meeting, gives opportunity for non-governmental organizations to raise issues of democracy and human rights in plenary sessions of the representatives of the OSCE participating states. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has recently given particular attention to the human rights situation in Central Asia, and this region will also be in the focus of several of our interventions in Warsaw. One of the interventions will be related to Freedom of religion or belief in Central Asia. Read here. The other intervention, initiated by our partner International partnership for Human Rights and supported by seven NGOs, raises serious concern for human rights defenders in central Asia. Read here . We will also have an intervention related to the upcoming elections and the importance of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan and Belarus. Read here
NHC has also been very concerned with the many open war crimes cases in Bosnia and Hercegovia. Together with our two main partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BiH and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska, BiH, we are urging implementation of the war crimes strategy to complete all open cases in time. In particular the insufficient protection of and respect for the rights of victims witnesses are highlighted. In the intervention the 3 organizations commends the OSCE Mission to BiH for making public its findings on witness protection and support in war crime cases. The report is available here. Read the full intervention here
In addition, a Side Event will be organised to present and discuss some of the findings of the research made by NHC and HRC Memorial as well as local NGOs during the crisis in Kyrgyzstan in June and July 2010. The side event is organised by HRC Memorial and Freedom House. NHC advisor Ivar Dale has written a summary of findings for the side event.