Ambassador Terhi Hakala chosen to head the OSCE Mission to Georgia
Press release 201/2007
10 October, 2007
Ambassador Terhi Hakala has been appointed head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia as from 15 October.
Established in 1992, the Mission works to help find a political solution to Georgia’s so-called frozen conflicts, the main field of responsibility being the Southern Ossetia conflict. The peace negotiations are at a standstill and armed encounters occur often in the conflict zone. The mandate of the Mission in Georgia also includes the promotion of human rights, democracy and freedom of the press as well as the monitoring of peacekeeping forces operating in the area, in accordance with OSCE principles. Further, the Mission takes part in reforming Georgia’s border activities, among other things by training frontier guards and border police.
Terhi Hakala currently serves as Finland’s roving ambassador to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. She has expert knowledge of the Southern Caucasus and Eastern Europe that has been acquired over a long period. Hakala has previously worked, for instance, at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow, the Consulate General in St. Petersburg and Finland’s Permanent Mission to the OSCE in Vienna. At the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Hakala most recently was head of the Unit for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In 1995–1996 Hakala served on the Finnish co-chairmanship team of the so-called Minsk Conference. The Minsk Conference seeks a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hakala entered the service of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1988.
At present, nine Finnish experts work at the OSCE Secretariat located in Vienna and the Missions in the field subordinate to it. Aside from Vienna, they are posted in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Uzbekistan.
A total of 56 states belong to the OSCE: all the countries of Europe, the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia as well as the USA and Canada. The organisation has 18 Missions in the field, situated in 17 different participant countries. The Mission to Georgia is among the largest. It employs a total of 64 international experts and 153 experts recruited from the target country.
Finland holds the OSCE chairmanship in 2008.
Additional information: Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Head of the OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, tel. +358 9 1605 5496, mobile tel. +358 400 330 406; and Roving Ambassador Terhi Hakala, tel. +358 9 1605 5532