Read the report: “OSCE PA vs. COVID-19: Reflections, policy contributions and recommendations presented by OSCE PA President George Tsereteli”
ONGOING MEETINGS
Wednesday 22 April, 15:00 CET: The Economic Security Fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights
Friday 8 May, 15:00 CET: Respecting human rights and maintaining democratic control during states of emergency Highlights
Friday 15 May, 15:00 CET: COVID’s impact on conflicts in the OSCE region
Friday 22 May, 15:00 CET: COVID-19: a turning point for environmental protection Highlights
Tuesday 26 May, 16:00 CET: Protecting refugees and migrants during the pandemic: Camps and closed centres under lockdown Highlights
Monday 15 June, 16:00 CET: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 Highlights
Monday 22 June, 15:00 CET: COVID-19 response in diverse societies: challenges and opportunities for stability and social cohesion
Tuesday 30 June, 15:30 CET: Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights
Tuesday 23 October, 14:00 CET: Informative briefing by the 2nd Committee Bureau with Italian Society of Environmental Medicine Findings
OSCE PA Second Committee leaders explore security impact of pollution with scientists (23 October 2020)
The Bureau of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s economic and environmental committee held an expert consultation on 23 October 2020 with the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA). The discussion focused on COVID-19, environmental security and ways to promote science-based policymaking.
OSCE PA members learned about the innovative research conducted by SIMA on the impact of pollution on public health and, more recently, on the correlation between SARS-Cov-2 virus transmission and the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter. Read more...
OSCEPA - PAM - UNOCT Web Dialogue "Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic" (30 June 2020)
On the occasion of the International Day of Parliamentarism the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) co-organized an online event on the role of parliamentarians in countering terrorism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the event was to deepen co-operation in response to the ongoing threat posed by terrorism and violent extremism in the context of the unprecedented crisis all nations face. 
Participants concurred that it is vital to assess the impact of the pandemic on violent extremism and carefully monitor terrorism trends throughout the Mediterranean region, the Sahel, as well as the OSCE region spanning 57 countries in North America, Europe and Central Asia.
peakers at the webinar included Hon. Gennaro Migliore, Chair of PAM’s Special Parliamentary Committee on Counterterrorism; Hon. Reinhold Lopatka, Chair of the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT); Mauro Miedico, Deputy Director and Chief of Special Projects and Innovation Branch (SPIB) – UNOCT; Amb. Mohamed El-Amine Ould Ikek, Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs at the League of Arab States; Amb. Alena Kupchyna, Director of the Transnational Threats Department at the OSCE; Dr. Andrea Margelletti, President of the International Studies Centre and Advisor to the Ministry of Defense of Italy, and OSCE PA President George Tsereteli. The webinar also played a video message by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the occasion of the International Day of Parliamentarism who spoke about the important role of parliaments amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more...
Photos from the webinar are available on Flickr. For video of the event, please click here.
Address by Gennaro Migliore, Chair of the PAM Special Parl-ry Comm on Counterterrorism, 30 June 2020
Address by Amb Alena Kupchyna, OSCE Co-ordinator of Activities on Transnational Threats, 30 Jun 2020
Address by Reinhold Lopatka, Chair of the Ad hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism, 30 June 2020
Address by Mauro Miedico, UNOCT Deputy Director and Chief of Special Projects Branch, 30 June 2020
Address by George Tsereteli, President of the OSCE PA, 30 June 2020
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "COVID-19 response in diverse societies: challenges and opportunities for stability and social cohesion" (22 June 2020)
Noting that racism and discrimination against ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities have been on the rise during the COVID-19 crisis, participants at an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly webinar said on 22 June 2020 that public officials have a duty to speak out against intolerance and to work in favour of social cohesion. The pandemic and related measures, if not carefully managed, have the potential to fuel discrimination, threaten stability and undermine security, they emphasized.
The webinar featured remarks from Chair of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (Cyprus); OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Ambassador Lamberto Zannier; and Nada Al-Nashif, Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Opening the event, Hadjiyianni noted that some studies indicate that online traffic to hate websites has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic by as much as 200 per cent in some countries and that spikes in hate-based incidents have been widely reported.
Zannier stressed the importance of trying to protect those who are more vulnerable because of the pandemic. He highlighted a set of recommendations by the OSCE HCNM on ensuring that COVID-19 emergency measures promote social cohesion. Al-Nashif spoke about an ‘infodemic’ related to COVID-19, with a disturbing proliferation of fake news and conspiracy theories. Read more...
For video of the event, please click here
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "Gendered Impacts of COVID-19" (15 June 2020)
Governments should ensure that the gendered impacts of COVID-19 are prioritized in their responses to the crisis, participants said in a webinar organized by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on 15 June 2020. The webinar included the participation of nearly 100 people including some 35 parliamentarians, as well as representatives of a number of OSCE institutions.
To prevent the pandemic from exacerbating inequalities among men and women and reversing many of the gains countries have made regarding gender equality, it was stressed that women must be equally represented in all COVID-19 response planning and decision-making. Participants noted that policymakers should utilize women’s civil society organizations’ wealth of experience, which is important not only in the immediate response to COVID-19 but also to achieve gender equality in the long term.
It featured remarks from OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues Hedy Fry, OSCE PA President George Tsereteli, OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Inter-Parliamentary Union President Gabriela Cuevas Barron, and Françoise Girard, President of the International Women’s Health Coalition. Read more...
Photos from the webinar are available on Flickr. For video of the event, please click here. Find the web dialogue Highlights here.
Address and concluding remarks by OSCE PA President George Tsereteli, 15 June 2020
Roberto Montella's intervention at webinar “Gendered Impacts of COVID-19”, 15 June 2020
IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron address to the OSCE PA, 15 June 2020
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of ODIHR , address to OSCE PA
Françoise Girard, President of the International Women’s Health Coalition, address to the OSCE PA
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "Protecting refugees and migrants during the pandemic: Camps and closed centres under lockdown" (26 May 2020)
The OSCE PA webinar on 26 May featured remarks from OSCE PA President George Tsereteli (Georgia); Vice-President Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden), Acting Chair of the OSCE PA Ad Hoc Committee on Migration; Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights; Gianluca Rocco, Chief of Mission and Regional Response Coordinator of the International Organization for Migration Office in Greece; Lord Alf Dubs (United Kingdom), Member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Migration; and OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella. In addition, 12 parliamentarians took the floor during the discussion.
Participants explored best practices for specific measures that can be implemented with respect to vulnerable categories of migrants. OSCE parliamentarians and experts from the international community discussed, in particular, the efficacy and legal basis of administrative detention of migrants in a context where there is no prospect of impending return and what alternatives to detention could be implemented under current circumstances. Read more...
Photos from the webinar are available on Flickr. For video of the event, please click here. Find the web dialogue Highlights here.
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "COVID-19: A turning point for environmental protection?" (22 May 2020)
In developing COVID-19 recovery plans, policymakers have an opportunity to advance an agenda to protect the environment while creating new employment opportunities, participants said in the fourth OSCE Parliamentary Assembly webinar on the COVID-19 crisis. There were more than 100 participants, including some 40 OSCE parliamentarians, who took part in the Parliamentary Web Dialogue.
German parliamentarian Doris Barnett, the Chair of the OSCE PA’s economic and environmental committee, opened the event by noting that the pandemic requires policymakers to rethink old habits and adjust them appropriately.
“The one crisis that affects all of us right now is the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Francesca Dominici, Professor of Biostatistics at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Data Science Initiative at Harvard University, presented a detailed description of COVID-19’s health effects and noted that certain vulnerable populations – such as minorities and low-income groups – are at greater risk than others. “The green shoots of nature have to be placed at the heart of any COVID-19 recovery plan,” said Susan Gardner, Director Ecosystems Division in the UN Environment Programme.
In the discussion, OSCE PA members highlighted the links between environmental degradation and public health, explored opportunities for targeted “green” policy interventions in response to the ongoing crisis, and debated ways to better protect the environment in order to enhance human security. Read more...
Photos of the webinar are available on Flickr. For video of the event, please check this space. Find the web dialogue Highlights here.
"Friday for democracy", Secretary General Montella's remarks, 22 May 2020
Address and Q&A by Dr. Francesca Dominici, Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative , 22 May 2020
Address and Q&A by Mr. Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, 22 May 2020
Address and Q&A by Ms. Susan Gardner, Director of the Ecosystems Division at the UNEP, 22 May 2020
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "Covid’s Impact on Conflicts in the OSCE Region" (15 May 2020)
The webinar included the participation of nearly 50 parliamentarians from some 30 countries. Keynote speakers included Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, and Ambassador Yaşar Halit Çevik, Head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. The online event also featured remarks by the Chair, Vice-Chair, and Rapporteur of the OSCE PA General Committee on Political Affairs and Security – Richard Hudson (United States), Costel Neculai Dunava (Romania), and Rapporteur Laurynas Kasciunas (Lithuania), respectively.
Populations of conflict-affected countries are at greater risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stressing that the pandemic poses obstacles to conflict resolution and humanitarian aid efforts, participants urged governments to keep focus on working towards a free and peaceful OSCE area in which all countries fully implement the fundamental principles agreed to under the Helsinki Final Act. Read more...
To watch a video of the webinar, please click here. Photos of the event are available on Flickr.
Intervention by OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella, 15 May 2020
Address and Q&A by Amb. Tuula Yrjola, OSCE Director of the Conflict Prevention Centre, 15 May 2020
Address and Q&A by Amb. Halit Cevik OSCE, Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine, 15 May 2020
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "Respecting human rights and maintaining democratic control during states of emergency" (8 May 2020)
More than 50 members of parliament from across the OSCE region participated in an online discussion on 8 May focused on the human rights consequences and democratic challenges posed by responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some two-thirds of OSCE countries have put in place states of emergency or other extraordinary measures, which often enable curbs on rights and can result in limitations on parliamentary oversight. The webinar encouraged participants to address the question of ‘Respecting human rights and maintaining democratic control during states of emergency’, with parliamentarians from more than 30 countries attending the online event.
In welcoming participants to the discussion, Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus), Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, noted the complexity of current challenges. The Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Ingibjorg Gisladottir, and the President of Freedom House, Michael Abramowitz, introduced a number of aspects for discussion by the parliamentarians.
A range of practical examples adopted by parliaments to ensure their continued effectiveness were presented by MPs, who took the opportunity to share their countries’ approaches. Read more...
To watch a full video of the webinar, please click here. For photos of the event, please click here. Find the web dialogue Highlights here.
Parliamentary Web Dialogue on "The Economic Security Fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic" (22 April 2020)
Some 85 participants joined the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s first webinar on the COVID 19 crisis on 22 April, focused on the economic security fallout of the pandemic.
Experts and parliamentarians shared views and lessons learned throughout the OSCE region and discussed the way forward for economic recovery. Expert keynote speakers included Prof. Giovanni Tria, former Italian Minister of Economy and Finance; Jeffrey Schlagenhauf, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD; and Prof. Gottfried Haber, Vice Governor at the National Bank of Austria. Following their presentations, more than a dozen parliamentarians took the floor to highlight various aspects of the crisis, share experiences from their countries, and pose questions to the experts.
In the discussion, members underlined the role of parliaments and discussed ways they can continue their vital functions in the period of lockdowns and social distancing, emphasizing that parliamentarians must work together to build recovery in the post-COVID-19 world. There is also a need for greater action on the EU level, it was stressed. Read more...
Highlights of the webinar.
To watch a full video of the webinar, please click here. Photos are available on the OSCE PA’s Flickr page.
