APPENDIX 2: OSCE MC and PC Decisions and Action Plans with a Focus on PoliceRelated Activities
Taskings on police-related issues are contained in OSCE Summit Decisions as well as in the
growing list of Decisions of the Ministerial Council and the Permanent Council, including a
number of OSCE Action Plans.
The Charter for European Security adopted by the Istanbul Summit Meeting (1999) represents
the platform for the OSCE involvement in policing. It contains the commitment of the OSCE
participating States to enhance the OSCE’s role in civilian police-related activities as an integral
part of the Organization's efforts in conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict
rehabilitation. Such activities may comprise: (1) police monitoring, including to prevent police from
discriminating due to religious and ethnic identity; (2) police training, which could, inter alia, aim to
improve the operational and tactical capabilities of local police services and reform paramilitary
forces, provide new and modern policing skills, such as community policing, and anti-drug, anticorruption and anti-terrorist capacities, create a police service with a multi-ethnic and/or multireligious composition that can enjoy the confidence of the entire population; and (3) promoting
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in general.
The Ninth Ministerial Council in Bucharest (2001) declared the OSCE’s decision to increase and
promote co-operation among participating States in countering new security challenges, including
by providing advice or arranging for the provision of expert advice on requirements for effective
policing (needs assessments) and how to meet them, and encouraging where appropriate the
exchange of information among and between participating States regarding lessons learned and
best policing practices in countering these new security challenges.
The Bucharest Plan of Action for Combating Terrorism (2001), adopted on the same occasion as
the above Decision on police-related activities, recognized the need to assist participating States,
on their request, through measures to combat trafficking in human beings, drugs and small arms
and light weapons, in accordance with relevant Permanent Council decisions. This assistance
could also include: provision of advice and assistance on restructuring and/or reconstruction of
police services; monitoring and training of existing police services, including human rights
training; and capacity-building, including support for integrated or multi-ethnic police services. To
this end, the plan of action acknowledged the requirement for reinforcing existing police-related
activities in conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation.
In its Decision No. 448 (2001), the Permanent Council decided to establish the seconded post of
Senior Police Adviser in the OSCE Secretariat.
In the Declaration on Trafficking in Human Beings adopted by the Tenth Ministerial Council of the
OSCE (Porto 2002), its members called on participating States to enhance international cooperation in combating criminal acts such as trafficking in drugs and arms, as well as smuggling
of migrants. They emphasized the need to include in this co-operation international law
enforcement bodies such as Europol and INTERPOL, as well as the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), with a view to investigating and prosecuting those responsible for
trafficking in human beings in accordance with domestic law and, where applicable, international
obligations. In this regard, they also asked the Senior Police Adviser to devote increased
attention to the fight against trafficking in human beings.
This tasking was further detailed in the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human
Beings, which requested the SPMU to further promote the concept of community policing and
facilitate the exchange of information between participating States on best practices to be used
by relevant investigating units to check the possibly criminal and trafficking-related origin of
suspicious assets. The SPMU was also tasked to continue developing training materials for law
enforcement on trafficking and sex crimes investigation, identify law enforcement trainers to
conduct training, and facilitate the funding of training sessions for law enforcement authorities in
OSCE participating States.
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