OSCE/JONATHAN PERFECT Overview by the ODIHR Director The 2013 OSCE Ministerial Council, in early December in Kyiv, was of particular importance to what the OSCE calls the “human dimension” of security. This approach stresses that strengthening democracy is vital to the security of our societies and of the OSCE area as a whole. This includes the areas of elections, democratic governance and rule of law, protecting fundamental human rights, promoting tolerance and non-discrimination, ensuring the protection and full participation of national minorities, including the Roma and Sinti and ensuring the freedom of the media. From the OSCE’s very beginnings, participating States have made commitments in all of these areas, based on the understanding that failure to do so – and to follow through on those commitments once made – poses a real threat to the peace and security of their societies. As members of a regional security organization, they also recognized that threats of this type within borders can easily spill across them. As fate would have it, the meeting in Kyiv took place against the backdrop of events that highlighted the grave importance of many of these issues. ODIHR Annual Report 2013  /   5