Ambassador James S. Gilmore III will lead the U.S. delegation to the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to be held in Warsaw, Poland, September 16-27, 2019. This annual meeting will bring together hundreds of civil society representatives and government officials from North America, Europe, and Central Asia for talks to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The participants will take stock of how the 57 OSCE participating States are implementing the full range of their human rights commitments, including those on: fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion or belief; the rule of law; democratic elections and governance; media freedom; and combating anti-Semitism, discrimination against Roma and Sinti, and other forms of intolerance.
A major U.S. focus will be Russian aggression in Ukraine, including abuses by Russia-led forces in the Donbas and occupation authorities in Crimea, as well as Russia’s serious human rights violations at home. We also will spotlight concerns in multiple countries of the OSCE region, such as: the shrinking space for civil society; persecution of human rights defenders; the safety of journalists; political prisoners; repressive measures against peaceful members of ethnic and religious groups; and hate crimes.
Members of the U.S. delegation to the 2019 HDIM include:
Ambassador James S. Gilmore, U.S. Permanent Representative to the OSCE and Head of Delegation
Christopher Robinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Roger D. Carstens, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Elan S. Carr, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
Alex T. Johnson, Chief of Staff, U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission)
For more information about the HDIM: https://www.osce.org/odihr/hdim_2019.
For more information about the U.S. Mission to the OSCE: http://osce.usmission.gov.