If an OSCE field operation decides to follow up an individual complaint in ways beyond providing general advice or referrals to the complainant, it still has a number of options for action from which to choose. This chapter sets out a number of these, beginning with the lowest level of OSCE intervention and moving progressively through more serious forms of diplomatic intervention. Missions may wish to follow this list as a progression in an individual case, moving from step to step until the problem is resolved or stopping at any stage if it is not appropriate to move to the next step. Or, depending on the particular case, missions may choose a single step or any combination of steps from the list. In extremely serious or urgent cases, a mission might choose to skip the initial steps and move directly to high-level, political intervention. 10.1 APPROACHING THE HOST GOVERNMENT As a general rule, the first stage in following up an individual complaint will be to make inquiries with the relevant government authorities about the case. It is important to select the right authorities to meet. It is also important to choose which information to give to the authorities, remembering in particular the risk of causing real harm. The Head of Mission or other relevant mission officer will determine which authorities to contact, at what level, and in what form. In many instances, it may be an OSCE staff member other than the one who took the complaint who contacts the authorities. 10.1.1 WHOM TO CONTACT A field operation should be sufficiently familiar with its host government to have a good idea which offices are responsible for dealing with human rights violations and which ones are most likely to be responsive to an OSCE inquiry. Ideally, the mission would make contact at the appropriate level of the ministry under whose jurisdiction the alleged human rights violation falls. In some countries, however, the mission may be required to deal with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or may judge that it would be more effective to deal with a human rights office or a regulatory body that deals with the type of complaint in question, such as an election commission or a minorities office. If the mission chooses to raise a case with more than one government office, it is a courtesy to inform each office that other offices have also been notified of the mission’s concerns. 89 10