Civil society organizes pre-event at OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting II
OSCE SHDM II PRE-EVENT will take place on May 16th 2022 at 9 am CEST.
Civil society along with Wolfgang Benedek Moscow Mechanism rapporteur will reflect on the report of of the Moscow mechanism and potential applicability of the findings within the context of international accountability mechanisms.
On 3 March, 45 OSCE participating States invoked the Moscow Mechanism in order to “address the human rights and humanitarian impacts of the Russian Federation’s invasion and acts of war, supported by Belarus, on the people of Ukraine, within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and territorial waters.”
Three experts were appointed to report on the situation, specifically to:
1) Establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments, and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law;
2) Establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including due to deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; and to collect, consolidate, and analyse this information with a view to presenting it to relevant accountability mechanisms, as well as national, regional, or international courts or tribunals that have, or may in future have, jurisdiction.
Following the publication of the report of the Moscow Mechanism, this event seeks to offer reflections from civil society to participating States on the report and its observations, next steps for following up on the report’s findings, and future use of the Moscow Mechanism within the context of new and additional international accountability mechanisms.
*- 5:00am Coalition is a coalition of Ukrainian human rights organisations organised in March 2022 to document human rights violations and war crimes resulting from Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine.
**- Euromaidan SOS is a volunteer initiative coordinated by the Centre for Civil Liberties, originally formed in 2013-2014 to provide legal assistance to victims of Euromaidan and reconstituted in 2022 to provide assistance to people affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and document warm crimes.
