Washington – The United States Helsinki Commission, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, has released U.S. statements delivered at the 2002 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The human rights assessment meeting was held September 9 – 19 in Warsaw, Poland.
Ambassador Melissa F. Wells served as Head of the U.S. Delegation. During her career in the Foreign Service, she served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Zaire, and Estonia.
During the meeting, Amb. Wells and other members of the U.S. delegation delivered statements regarding the current status of human rights in various participating States of the OSCE. Among the specific topics raised in Warsaw by the United States were political prisoners, anti-Semitism, human rights and the war against terrorism, trafficking in humans, democratic elections, violence against women and the rights of Roma.
As a courtesy to interested individuals, the Helsinki Commission has made those statements available on its Internet Web site http://www.csce.gov.
The meeting focuses annually on a wide range of human rights issues including the prevention of torture, minority rights, the rule of law and freedom of the media among many others. More than 150 non-governmental organizations participated in the review process in addition to officials representing the participating States.
The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce.
