First regional civil society conference in Belgrade

As part of the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship, the first of four regional workshops is taking place in Belgrade. Three further workshops, in Tbilisi, Dushanbe and Vienna are planned over the course of 2014. Under the banner of "implementing human rights commitments to improve peoples’ lives" around 60 participants from all over south-eastern Europe take part in discussions on the topics of preventing torture and preventing hate crime and hate speech, focusing on the Roma and Sinti. The workshop was organised by the OSCE mission in Serbia and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. The Swiss ambassador in Serbia, Jean-Daniel Ruch, opened the conference.

The four regional workshops will formulate recommendations for the OSCE participating States and institutions. These recommendations will be addressed to the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Didier Burkhalter, at the end of the civil society conference, which will precede the Ministerial Council meeting at the beginning of December 2014 in Basel. Enhanced and systematic involvement of civil society in the work of the OSCE is one of the priorities of the Swiss Chairmanship in 2014.

Press release (OSCE)