The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was the first among international security organizations in recognizing human rights as an integral part of security. When the Helsinki Final Act was adopted in 1975, it marked the first occasion that the “human dimension” of security – in essence, human rights principles – was included as an explicit element of a regional security framework on the same basis as politico-military and economic issues.3 The Helsinki Final Act recognizes human rights as “an essential factor for the peace, justice and well-being necessary to ensure the development of friendly relations and co-operation” among states. The principles included in the Helsinki Final Act were later expanded and reinforced in numerous follow-up agreements, including OSCE summits and ministerial meetings. The documents issued at these meetings established human rights as a central element of the work of the organization. OSCE commitments are adopted by consensus among all participating States and are politically binding. This means that they are immediately binding on all OSCE participating States, which is different from the United Nations, for example, where standards must first be signed and ratified before they enter into force. Thus, the importance of human rights for the OSCE is well established and beyond question. At the most recent OSCE Summit (Istanbul, 1999), for example, the heads of government signed the Charter for European Security, which states: “We reaffirm that respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law is at the core of the OSCE’s comprehensive concept of security.”4 Because the OSCE regards security as a broad concept that includes a politico-military dimension, an economic dimension, and a human dimension, there is no hierarchy among OSCE principles, and no government can claim that it must establish political or economic security before addressing human rights and democracy. Furthermore, all OSCE participating States have accepted that implementation of OSCE human rights commitments is a matter of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and is not an internal affair.5 At the Istanbul Summit, the heads of government affirmed that: “All OSCE commitments, without exception, apply equally to each participating State.... Participating States are accountable to their citizens and responsible to each other for their implementation of their OSCE commitments. We regard these commitments as our common achievement and therefore consider them to be matters of immediate and legitimate concern to all participating States.”6 OSCE participating States are thus not in a position to avoid discussions about human rights problems or to assert that raising human rights concerns constitutes interference in internal affairs. 3 4 5 6 The text of the Helsinki Final Act and other OSCE documents are available in full on the OSCE website at http://www.osce.org. Documents containing OSCE human dimension commitments have been compiled both chronologically and thematically in OSCE Human Dimension Commitments, A Reference Guide (Warsaw, OSCE/ODIHR, 2001), which is also available electronically on the ODIHR website at http://www.osce.org/odihr and is searchable by issue or by document. All OSCE documents and commitments referred to in this guide can be found in these sources. Charter for European Security, Paragraph 19. This commitment is stated most clearly in the Preamble to the Moscow Document (1993). Charter for European Security, Paragraph 7. 19 1