PART I 2 OSCE COMMITMENTS AND PRECEDENTS  The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD);  The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners/UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials;  The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;  The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;  The Geneva Conventions and their related protocols;  The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol; and  The UN Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups, and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It is important for OSCE staff dealing with human dimension issues to be familiar with the contents of the documents listed above and to know which of them their host governments have ratified.12 Knowing all the relevant standards enables OSCE human dimension officers to choose the most appropriate one to use and refer to in every specific situation. As noted earlier, all participating States are bound by all OSCE commitments, and these commitments may in some instances, by reference, bind the participating States to other international standards and principles enshrined in other international human rights instruments. This is, for example, the case with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, as well as the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.13 2.2 OSCE PRECEDENTS The OSCE has developed many precedents for dealing with allegations of human rights violations, including individual cases. Sections 1.2. and 1.3. of this handbook outline some of the actions that OSCE political bodies and institutions have taken in the past in response to allegations of human rights violations. Some OSCE field operations have included large human dimension sections. Actions undertaken in individual cases have included factfinding, investigations, interventions with governments, appeals for the release of prisoners, trial monitoring, assistance to refugees and displaced persons, mediation, and other steps. In short, field missions have a wide array of possible tools at their disposal for dealing with individual complaints. These are spelled out in more detail in Part III. 12 For the current status of ratifications of different human right treaties, see the ODIHR website. 13 Concluding Document of the Vienna Third Follow-up Meeting, 19 January 1989, Paragraph 23.3. 26