Saturday, 26 November 2022
The 20th Autumn Meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE JPA) concluded yesterday. Mrs. Irini Charalambidou, Vice-Chairwoman of the CoR. OSCE and head of the Cypriot delegation participated in a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Assembly on an amendment concerning the suspension of the participation of a national delegation in cases of acts that constitute clear and flagrant violations of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and the commitments undertaken within the OSCE framework.
In her intervention, Ms. Charalambidou, after thanking the Committee for its efforts to establish a suspension mechanism in response to the Assembly's call, said that since its presentation, the amendment in question had been the subject of intense debate among Assembly members.
Cyprus, Ms. Charalambidou pointed out, is also a victim of flagrant violations of the Helsinki principles and, of course, the United Nations Charter, by revisionist and revisionist states and will therefore always maintain a strict commitment to the principles of international law. That is why the country stands by Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, fully implementing the sanctions against Russia.
Ms. Charalambidou welcomed the Assembly's ability to judge whether participating states that ignore the Helsinki principles can jointly contribute to the OSCE's goals and policies, stressing that international organizations should be able to demand the implementation of fundamental principles in practice and impose sanctions if they want to be consistent and credible in what they preach. Cyprus, he stressed, is well aware of the need for such legal weapons against states with expansionist ambitions, which, he said, participate in the proceedings of international organisations as equal partners, despite their appalling record of violations of international law.
On the other hand, however, Ms. Charalambidou pointed out, before any decision is taken to exclude any delegation from the Assembly, we should be able to weigh the benefits and costs of a possible suspension and the virtual exclusion of any possibility of dialogue. The suspension of any delegation, she noted, would lead, among other things, to the complete alienation of the persecuted parliament from all the commitments it has undertaken as a result of its participation in the OSCE CS.
In conclusion, Ms. Charalambidou underlined that the OSCE CS constitutes a valuable platform for dialogue and security enhancement in Europe and is meant to build bridges, not tear them down. Therefore, she suggested that this amendment should not be put to a vote, as it would not constitute a universal response to Russian aggression, further dividing the Assembly.
(The text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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