*EPF503 07/13/01
Transcript: U.S. Commends Anti-Trafficking Efforts of OSCE
(Amb. Johnson statement to Permanent Council July 12) (660)
The United States had commended the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and ODIHR Director Gerard Stoudmann for their efforts to combat human trafficking.
"We believe his office's work on that issue has been outstanding, in particular, raising awareness, helping states draft legislation, and assisting victims," U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE David Johnson said after Stoudmann briefed the Permanent Council in Vienna July 12.
Johnson also discussed OSCE election monitoring missions, stressing the need for more training, "so that states can indeed through domestic observation efforts provide the credibility for their own elections that currently are provided by international observers." The United States welcomed ODIHR's efforts, as part of the International Election Observation Mission, to monitor the June 24 and July 8 rounds of the elections in Albania.
Following is a transcript of his remarks:
(begin transcript)
United States Mission to the OSCE
STATEMENT ON ODIHR
[Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights]
Delivered by Ambassador David T. Johnson to the Permanent Council, Vienna
July 12, 2001
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
A number of the issues that Ambassador Stoudmann brought to our attention have been touched on in one way or another earlier in the day. Specifically, issues related to Belarus and its elections and also issues related to Chechnya. But, I would say that, in particular, the detailed description he gave to us of issues where he believes progress can be made in Chechnya was indeed useful to hear and we look forward to follow up on them. But we also have to remind ourselves that most of the issues that have to be dealt with in Chechnya, notwithstanding the good work done by Ambassador Stoudmann and his colleagues, our colleagues in the Council of Europe and indeed by the Assistance Group - most of those issues indeed have to be addressed by the Russian Federation and we look forward to that in fact being the case.
There was one issue in particular that Ambassador Stoudmann did not raise that I would like to and that is the issue of ODIHR's work on anti-trafficking. We believe his office's work on that issue has been outstanding, in particular, raising awareness, helping states draft legislation, and assisting victims. Given the commitment of our ministers to that question, as well as the recently adopted document by our parliamentarians in Paris, we believe that the positions of advisors on that issue for ODIHR should in this year's budget become part of the normal post table.
With respect to Albania, we indeed welcomed ODIHR's efforts, as part of the International Election Observation Mission, to monitor the June 24 and July 8 rounds of the elections. We concur that these are the best elections that have been held in Albania, but also agree with Ambassador Stoudmann that there are a number of problems that remain to be addressed including possibly duplicate protocols and a general failure by the Central Election Committee thus far to investigate claims of problems as well as allegations of police interference.
With respect to the next agenda item on the Election Processes Seminar, we think that there does need to be more attention devoted to follow-up on recommendations that have emerged from election observation efforts. We would welcome targeted ODIHR assistance and reporting on such follow up efforts. Second, as Ambassador Stoudmann himself noted for us, we need to do more in order to provide for a domestic election observation effort and ensure that the training and the structures are in place so that states can indeed through domestic observation efforts provide the credibility for their own elections that currently are provided by international observers. This is particularly the case in the example that we have this fall with ODIHR in Belarus where the domestic observation effort will play such a key part.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN