Since 2017, Representative Chris Smith (NJ-04) has co-chaired the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where he actively promotes human rights and rule of law in the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is also a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, where he chairs the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee.
Co-Chairman Smith serves as an active member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), which facilitates inter-parliamentary dialogue among the participating States. Since 2004, he has been the Special Representative for Human Trafficking Issues to the President of the OSCE PA.
At the Commission, Co-Chairman Smith’s priorities have included preventing human trafficking, combating anti-Semitism, promoting religious freedom, advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience, and advocating for human rights and accountability in numerous OSCE countries, most recently focused on Northern Ireland, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Russia.
Elected in 1980, Co-Chairman Smith is currently in his 19th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has been a member of the Commission since 1983, and chaired the Commission in five previous Congresses.
