Events

Evghenii's current research on the (non)implementation of international human rights standards in Transnistria spurred a contested brainstorming session on the transitional period that many MENA countries currently face. Pavel, who had been barred from the country for the previous half-decade for drawing satirical cartoons and posting animated videos of President Lukashenko, assisted in drawing up a declaration condemning Belarus on the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. The declaration was most notably in response to the government’s recent detention and imprisonment of human rights defenders, Ales Bialiatski and Zmister Dashkevich. The declaration was later presented at the main plenary session by Lithuanian foreign minister, Audronius Ažubalis, a refreshing site of a high ranking government official taking the lead in streamlining a civil society cause to a swath of policymakers throughout the OSCE region.

On the margins of the Ministerial, human rights defenders were the primary audience for a speech by Secretary Clinton, where she emphasized the importance of civil society in continuing to exert pressure on authoritarian and corrupt regimes. For established Russian human rights defenders, Yuri Dzhibladze and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, her engagement with leading civil society actors was a welcome departure from the cold war days’ exclusivity of governmental communication. During the conference, held at the touched up Soviet era convention center, attending activists utilized the unique opportunity of post-conference media briefings to inconspicuously pose as journalists and probe and question leading OSCE figures such as Dunja Mijatovic, Janez Lenarcic, and Lamberto Zannier.

In addition, the Open Society Foundation utilized the event to launch Civic Solidarity, an international coordination platform of leading human rights and social progress organizations in the OSCE region. The initiative aims to combat the growing trend towards authoritarianism and human rights violations throughout Europe and sustain a collective effort of human rights advocacy through a new media and online collaboration campaign. The Jefferson Institute is one of the founding members.