Foreign Minister Stubb welcomes appointment of new head of OSCE’s human rights body

Press release 161/2008
15 May, 2008

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, welcomed today the decision by the OSCE Ministerial Council to appoint Janez Lenarčič of Slovenia as the head of the Organization’s human rights body.

Lenarčič will assume his new function as Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 1 July for a three-year term. He replaces Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria, who has headed the ODIHR for more than five years.

"I thank Ambassador Strohal for his strong contribution to the development of the ODIHR, and look forward to working with Ambassador Lenarčič to intensify further the Organization's human rights work," said Minister Stubb.

He added that the appointment will allow the ODIHR to continue its important work under competent leadership without a hiatus.

Lenarčič, born in Ljubljana in 1967, has an extensive background in OSCE affairs. He was the Slovenian Ambassador to the OSCE from 2003 to 2006. In 2005, when Slovenia held the OSCE’s rotating Chairmanship, he chaired the Permanent Council, the Organization’s regular political decision-making body. He has also served as State Secretary and Diplomatic Adviser in the office of the Slovenian Prime Minister and in the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York.

Further information: Counsellor Janne Taalas, Deputy Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, tel. +358 40 728 4015; and Juha Kirstilä, Press Attaché to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, +358 40 552 8200