Kazakhstani Lawyer Contributes to Civil Society Recommendations For OSCE, Facilitated by the IBAHRI
Thursday 30 November 2017
The Parallel Civil Society Conference organised by the Civil Solidarity Platform – ‘a decentralized advocacy network of independent civic groups from across the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] region’ 1 – was held in December 2017 in Vienna, Austria. The conference provides space for civil society stakeholders in the region to discuss matters relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms. The primary objective of the 2017 conference was to draft a ‘Vienna Declaration’ on preventing security measures, such as those relating to counterterrorism, from endangering human rights. The recommendations of this declaration were then presented to the OSCE Ministerial Council.
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) facilitated the participation of a Kazakhstani lawyer at the conference, who then contributed to the recommendations laid out in the Vienna Declaration.
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Sebastian Kurz, later commented on the conference: ‘Your assessment and call to the OSCE participating States to ensure that such counter-terrorism or anti-extremism measures are not misused as a pretext to clamp down on independent or critical voices is essential.’2
1 http://civicsolidarity.org/page/about-us
2 https://www.osce.org/chairmanship/360976