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MP Kyriakos Hatzigiannis, in his capacity as Special Representative for the Participation of Civil Society in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).He participated in the 3rd Supplementary Meeting on the implementation of the OSCE Human Dimension, in Vienna, on the theme: "The role of civil society in promoting and protecting tolerance and combating discrimination."
In his address at the opening of the Meeting, Mr. Hatzigiannis pointed out that the fight against discrimination and intolerance requires the participation and cooperation of all relevant actors such as governments, parliaments, civil society and academia.
As parliamentarians, Hatzigiannis said, we have a duty to publicly condemn all manifestations of intolerance both within parliaments and within our societies, making it clear that such phenomena are not acceptable for the democratic culture we want to promote, which is based on respect for the human rights of all.
The Cypriot MEP underlined the important role of civil society in producing parliamentary work and in building stronger and more democratic societies, through its contribution to improving the quality and transparency of political decisions and legislation and, consequently, to their successful implementation, while acknowledging the need for stronger laws at national level, which will facilitate the participation of civil society in legislative work.
Hatzigiannis noted that Cyprus is among the few countries in the European Union that has designed and implements a comprehensive policy on civil society and volunteerism. He referred to the adoption of a series of policies and actions that strengthen the role of civil society such as the institutionalization of public consultation, the cooperation of civil society with ministries and government departments through the signing of memoranda of understanding, the development of a strategy for active citizenship and participatory governance as well as the creation of the "Volunteer House" which hosts a significant number of non-governmental organizations. OSCE as a privileged forum for dialogue and cooperation in identifying best practices and drawing lessons to address this phenomenon, but also in adopting resolutions on the shrinking civil society space in the OSCE region and the need to effectively address this phenomenon.
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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