Comment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with non-admission of representatives of South Ossetia to participate in Warsaw Human Dimension Conference

МИД Южной Осетии

With support from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) the annual OSCE conference, the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings, will take place from September 26 to October 7, 2022 in Warsaw. Representatives of member states of the Organization will have the possibility to discuss the state of affairs in the above mentioned sphere and assess the fulfillment of the obligations of states in observing human rights and freedoms. 

Representatives of non-governmental organizations of the Republic of South Ossetia have numerous times actively participated in the work of the platform, which was open to representatives of civil society.  

However, this year, the organizers of the forum decided to change the rules, having introduced requirements, which were impracticable for delegates from the Republic of South Ossetia when registering as participants, and the official authorities of the Republic of Poland, hosting the conference as the OSCE chair country, blocked any possibility for our delegates to enter the territory of the state.

As a result, contrary to the declared openness of the OSCE, everything has been done so that representatives of non-governmental organizations of South Ossetia could neither participate in the meeting nor share reliable information on their activities and their views on current humanitarian issues and problems with other participants.

We are forced to regard what is happening as demonstrative discriminatory measures against representatives of South Ossetia and an unacceptable gross violation of the fundamental principles of the organization.

 

Tskhinval, September 26, 2022

26.09.2022