COPENHAGEN, 24 June 2013 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Wolfgang Grossruck has called for an increase in funding to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in an amendment before the Assembly's human rights committee.

The amendment to the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions resolution reads as follows:

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:
Calls for an increase in funding and support to the OSCE/ODIHR for activities
in the field of fundamental freedoms, in particular in the area of democratic development, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination, and rule of law,
in accordance with the mandate provided in the 1992 Helsinki Document.

"The OSCE needs a more proactive human rights office that works to defend human rights, and we stand behind giving ODIHR the greater funding and support needed to get it there," said President Grossruck, who serves as his party's human rights spokesperson and vice chair of the Human Rights Committee in the Austrian Parliament.

President Grossruck's amendment already has the support of 11 parliamentarians from seven countries, including the following leading OSCE PA members: Treasurer Roberto Battelli (Slovenia), Vice-President Alain Neri (France), former President Joao Soares (Portugal), as well as Speaker Ranko Krivokapic of the Montenegrin Parliament, and Deputy Speaker Gordana Comic of the Serbian Parliament.

The Warsaw-based ODIHR has requested additional funding to respond to requests related to policing hate crimes among other projects. President Migliori's speech in Warsaw last autumn stressed the need for the OSCE's primary human rights institution to get back to its roots. He encouraged a more outspoken office that is more vigilant in promoting the rule of law.