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UN and regional bodies can aid each other in curbing conflict, says OSCE chief

UN and regional bodies can aid each other in curbing conflict, says OSCE chief

Chairman-in-Office of OSCE, Dimitrij Rupel
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) told the United Nations Security Council today that both organizations could complement each other in the search for stability and peace in many of the world's crisis flash points.

"It is difficult for inter-state organizations to deal with non-state actors, even if – as in some cases – they are de facto authorities," OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said in an open briefing, in which he mentioned conflicts in Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh.

"There are times when the leverage of powerful states – including Permanent Members of this Council – can be crucial. I urge you to exert that pressure in the context of OSCE mediation efforts to help resolve these long-standing conflicts," he added.

Conversely, Mr. Rupel noted the report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change in drawing up a strategy suitable for the 21st century.

"Through the implementation of this strategy, I believe that the OSCE can take on some of the UN's burden in the OSCE area. As the UN Panel noted, the Security Council's ability to more proactively prevent and respond to threats could be strengthened by making fuller and more productive use of regional organizations. The OSCE is well positioned and well-equipped to do so," he declared.

There are areas, such as preventing ethnic conflict and regulating the marking and tracing, as well as the brokering and transfer of small arms and light weapons, where the OSCE is even more progressive than the UN, he said.

The OSCE, for example, has considerable expertise in national minority issues, policing and building the effective public institutions that were so essential for Kosovo's peaceful and sustainable development. In many tense situations, effective policing is needed rather than UN blue helmets military units, he said.

In Moldova, Georgia and in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the OSCE is actively trying to resolve conflicts that are sometimes referred to as frozen but which lately have started to thaw, he added. The slow but steady progress in the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh is encouraging, and it is to be hoped that recent changes in Ukraine and a new post-election environment in Moldova will enable a new attempt to resolve the Transdniestrian conflict.

The OSCE is also working with parties to reduce tensions in South Ossetia, Georgia, and to promote demilitarization, build confidence and achieve a lasting settlement there.

Regarding the clash between the concept of "responsibility to protect" and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state, Mr. Rupel stressed that the OSCE was very clear and progressive when it came to human rights. Commitments undertaken in the organization's human rights dimension are of direct and legitimate concern to all participating states and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state concerned, he said.

That legitimate intrusiveness is the basis on which participating states hold each other accountable for the implementation of their commonly agreed commitments, he added. He also stressed that the battle against terrorism must not violate human rights.