Please join the U.S. Helsinki Commission for
OSCE 101: BRIEFING FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
Thursday, September 4, 2008
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Rayburn House Office Building
B318
For those in need of a refresher course and those interested in becoming involved.
Learn about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
and the Role of Civil Society
For those planning to travel to Warsaw, Poland, remember to register to participate in the OSCE’s Annual Human Rights Meeting:
What: Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM)
When: September 29 – October 10, 2008
Where: Warsaw, Poland
Why: Annual 2-week human rights conference
What is the HDIM?
The term “human dimension” describes the set of norms and activities related to human rights, the rule of law, and democracy that are regarded within the OSCE as one of the three pillars of its comprehensive security concept, along with the politico-military and the economic and environmental dimensions.
Every year in Warsaw, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes a two-week conference, the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM). The HDIM is a forum where OSCE participating States discuss the implementation of human dimension commitments that were adopted by consensus at prior OSCE Summits or Ministerial Meetings.
These commitments are not legally binding norms; instead, they are politically binding – a political promise to comply with the standards elaborated in OSCE documents. Follow-up meetings to review the implementation of the commitments are based on the principle that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state concerned.
A comprehensive, 2-volume compilation of the OSCE human dimension commitments (available in English and in Russian) can be ordered free of charge through the ODIHR website:
Volume 1: Thematic Compilation and Volume 2: Chronological Compilation.
