Title

The OSCE at Twenty: Its Relevance to Other Regions - Part 5

Tuesday, November 14, 1995
Room 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
United States
Official Transcript: 
Members: 
Name: 
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin
Title Text: 
Commisioner
Body: 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Witnesses: 
Name: 
Alan Makovsky
Title: 
Senior Fellow
Body: 
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Name: 
Fatima Ziai
Title: 
Human Rights Watch/Middle East
Name: 
Tasheen Basheer
Title: 
Senior Fellow
Body: 
U.S. Institute for Peace

This two day briefing was a response to legislation that called for the CSCE to conduct an analysis of the OSCE’s strengths and weaknesses and to ascertain the feasibility of creating similar institutions in other geographic regions. The briefing was divided into six panels. This fifth panel focused on the Middle East, and framed the discussion on Middle Eastern security as being closely tied to European security by virtue of their geographic proximity.

Ambassador Basheer noted several qualitative differences between Europe and the Middle East in terms of the nature of grievances, which in the Middle East often include complicated territorial issues. He noted that NGOs might play a particularly useful role in mediating such conflicts, especially where parties refuse to engage on a government-to-government level. One notable example of this included Israel’s refusal to engage with regional governments on nuclear weapons proliferation. 

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The Helsinki Commission Contribution The U.S. Helsinki Commission was the first to propose concrete commitments regarding free and fair elections more than a year before they were adopted by the OSCE in June 1990. By that time, Commissioners and staff had already observed the conduct of the first multi-party elections in seven East and Central European countries transitioning from one-party communist states to functioning democracies. As the OSCE developed its institutional capacities in the mid-1990s, the Commission joined the efforts of an increasing number of observer teams from across the OSCE region, which evolved into the well-planned, professional election observation missions of today.  Commissioners and staff have observed well over 100 elections since 1990. 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