Barbara Bartus and Margareta Cederfelt, Warsaw, 13 October 2021WARSAW, 14 October 2021 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Margareta Cederfelt has just wrapped up a visit to Warsaw, where she met this week with parliamentary leaders, members of the OSCE PA’s Polish Delegation, and OSCE officials. Cederfelt, along with Vice-President Irene Charalambides, civil society envoy Kyriakos Hadjiyianni and Secretary General Roberto Montella, also participated today in the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’ 30th anniversary event.
On Wednesday, the President met with Elzbieta Witek, Marshall of the Sejm; Tomasz Grodzki, Marshal of the Senate; and the Delegation of Poland to the OSCE PA, including Head of Delegation Barbara Bartus.
Cederfelt and interlocutors lauded the active engagement of Polish parliamentarians in PA activities, including election observation, underlined the importance of making full use of PA tools to address international challenges, as well as promoting close co-operation between the Assembly and the OSCE’s governmental side to reinforce existing synergies ahead of the 2022 Polish OSCE Chairpersonship.
They also discussed a number of issues of concern, including developments in Belarus and the plight of migrants trapped at the border between Belarus and Poland. Support was expressed for the work of the OSCE PA's Ad Hoc Committee on Migration for putting human rights at the center of the response to the migration crisis.
Speaking today at ODIHR’s high-level panel on “Human rights and democracy: Advancing the OSCE’s Unique Vision of Security,” Cederfelt stressed the essential contribution that parliamentarians make to election observation, which she said is one of the most effective tools in defending democratic principles.
“It’s important for society that we perform election observation,” Cederfelt said. “Election observation is a way to combine the political area with the experts. When we make our statements, they are based both on expert knowledge and political perspective.” She emphasized that observation is not only important on election day itself but also for the pre- and post-electoral periods, noting that democracy would benefit from enhanced PA and ODIHR co-operation in follow-up activities.
Charalambides, who serves as Special Representative on Fighting Corruption, Hadjiyianni, and Montella have held meetings with diplomats, officials and activists particularly related to their work on combating corruption, and civil society engagement in OSCE work. SG Montella met with OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid and Heads of OSCE Institutions as well as the CiO’s Special Representative Kent Harstedt to discuss the current political situation in the OSCE region in the run up to the OSCE Ministerial Council in Stockholm.
Kyriakos Hadjiyianni addressing the Civic Solidarity Platform in Warsaw, 13 October 2021On Wednesday, Special Representative on Civil Society Engagement Hadjiyianni spoke at a Civic Solidarity Platform event in Warsaw on key challenges the OSCE faces in the human dimension. In his remarks, Hadjiyianni noted that the OSCE currently faces significant challenges in all fields, but these are particularly acute in the human dimension. “I believe that there has been an increasing lack of genuine interest in an open review of human rights issues,” Hadjiyianni said. “Instead of real examination of what failings exist, there is now a tendency of ‘whataboutism’,” said Hadjiyianni, noting that it almost appears to be a default defence for many countries to distract from their own failings by pointing to failings in other countries.
Hadjiyianni urged a strong commitment to the flexibility that exists within the OSCE, noting that robust oversight – including on the parliamentary level – is key.
Special Representative Charalambides has met in Warsaw with various interlocutors on the sidelines of the ODIHR meeting to advance co-operation on anti-corruption work.
