Trafficking in human beings and intolerance on the agenda of the OSCE meeting in Warsaw

Press release 393/2006
2 October, 2006

The main event of the year of the human dimension of the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, opened in Warsaw on Monday 2 October. The fortnight-long meeting will review the state of implementation of the human dimension commitments in the 56 OSCE participating States. The focus this year will be on trafficking in human beings and tolerance. The meeting is the largest human rights conference organised in Europe and is expected to attract nearly a thousand representatives from governments, international organisations and civil society this year.

Addressing the opening session on behalf of the EU, the leader of the delegation of the Finnish EU presidency State Under-Secretary of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Markus Lyra asserted the strategic importance of the human dimension for the activities of the OSCE and the role of the consolidation of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in safeguarding security and stability in Europe.

Further information: First Secretary Jouni Laaksonen, Unit for Human Rights Policy, tel. 040 573 7567, and First Secretary Marjo Mäki-Leppilampi, Permanent Representation of Finland to the OSCE, +43 664 1516 884