Comic, Santos, Kulkuloglu to lead Third Committee.ISTANBUL, 2 July 2013 – Isabel Santos, former vice-chair of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, has been elected to chair the committee.

In the final day of committee business at the Annual Session, parliamentarians elected a new leadership team for the Assembly’s human rights committee, promoting Santos of Portugal to chair, electing Mehmet Sevki Kulkuloglu (Turkey) as vice-chair and Gordana Comic (Serbia) as rapporteur.

Santos served as acting chair during this Annual Session and recently represented the Assembly at the OSCE Media Freedom Seminar in Warsaw. She has been a frequent election observer on missions to Belarus, the United States and elsewhere. 

Kulkuloglu, a member of the Turkish Parliament since 2007, has been a member of the OSCE PA since 2011. For the last four years he has filed reports on political abuse and corruption in his home country. He previously served as a military doctor and founded a textile trade company in 1989.

Comic, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, has been a Member of Parliament since 2000 and a delegate to the OSCE PA since 2005. She chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2004 to 2007 and currently sits on the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality.