CONFLICT PREVENTION BY THE OAU: THE RELEVANCE OF THE O.S.C.E. HIGH COMMISSIONER ON NATIONAL MINORITIES

African Yearbook of International Law/Annuaire Africain de droit international

Volumn 4, Issue , 1996, Pages 279-291

  Packer, John ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84926974536     PISSN: 13807412     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. Until 1 January 1993, the OSCE was known as the "Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe", i.e. "CSCE". For a complete record of the development of the CSCE/OSCE from its first meetings in Helsinki,see Arie Bloed (ed.) The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe; Analysis and Basic Documents, 1972-1993, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993. Meeting at Budapest on 6 December 1994
2. , the Heads of State and Government of the then CSCE adopted the Budapest Document 'Towards a Genuine Partnership in a New Era" which, pursuant to paragraph 3, determined that "the CSCE will henceforth [i.e. as of 1 January 1995] be known as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)"; for the
3. full text of the Document, see Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 15 (1994), No. 11-12, pp. 449 ff. While the change of name was expressly intended to reflect political and institutional developments at that time, it remains unclear whether the OSCE has yet acquired legal personality as a public international organization. For some considerations and a specific view on this question, see the note by Miriam Sapiro,
4. "Changing the CSCE into the OSCE: Legal Aspects of a Political Transformation", American Journal of International Law, Vol. 89 (1995), No. 3, pp. 631-637. For an earlier consideration of the question, i.e. prior to the Budapest Summit Meeting, see
5. Renata Szafarz, "CSCE: an International Organization in Statu NascendiT in Arie Bloed and Wilco de Jonge (eds.), Legal Aspects of a New European Infrastructure, Utrecht: Europa Instituut and Nederlands Helsinki Comite\ 1992, pp. 15-21.
6. See, for example, the following: Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance, published in London by African Rights in September 1994; Final Report of the Committee of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 935 (1994), S/1994/1405 of 9 December 1994; and the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Rwanda, docs. E/CN.4/1995/7 and 71 and E/CN.4/1996/68. For an analysis and critique of the response of the United Nations to the situation in Rwanda, see Fatsah Ouguergouz, "La trag&iie Rwandaise du printemps 1994;
7. Quelques considerations sur les premieres reactions de 1*Organization des Nations Unies", Revue Generate de Droit International Public (1996), No. 1, pp. 149-177.
8. See, for example, the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi, docs. E/CN.4/1995/66 and E/CN.4/1996716.
9. See, for example, the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Zaire, docs. E/CN.4/1995/67 and E/CN.4/1996/66.
10. See, for example, the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, docs. E/CN.4/1995/58 and E/CN.4/1996/62.
11. For a good summary of the content of the mandate, together with some analysis of its strengths and weaknesses, see Michel Cyr Djiena Wembou, "Le Mecanisme de TOAU pour la prevention, la gestion at le rfeglement des conflits", African Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 2 (1994), pp. 71-91.
12. 0 The mandate of the HCNM was elaborated in the 1992 Helsinki Decisions at Chapter I (paragraph 23) and Chapter II passim For the text of the mandate, see Arie Bloed, supra (note 3), pp. 714 ff.; see also Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 13 (1992), No. 7-8, pp. 284 ff.
13. 11 See the Charter of Paris for a New Europe adopted on 21 November 1990, followed by the Report of the Oslo Seminar of Experts on Democratic Institutions of November 1991; the full texts are found in Arie Bloed, supra (note 3), pp. 537 ff. and 631 ff.,
14. respectively. In July 1992, the Heads of State and Government of the OSCE agreed upon the Helsinki Document which confirmed the new commitments which were reconfirmed two years later in Budapest at the December 1994 meeting of Heads of State and Government; for the full texts of the documents, see, respectively, Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 13 (1992), No. 7-8, pp. 284 ff., and Vol. 15 (1994), No. 11-12, pp. 449 ff.
15. For the full text of the Concluding Document of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE adopted in Copenhagen on 29 June 1990, see Arie Bloed, supra (note 3), pp. 439 ff.; the text is reproduced in Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.
16. On the political environment at the origin of the mandate of the HCNM, see Rob Zaagman and Hannie Zaal, "The CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: Prehistory and Negotiations" in Arie Bloed (ed.), The Challenges of Change; The Helsinki Summit of the CSCE and Its Aftermath, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1994, pp. 95-111 at 95.
17. For more details on the development of the concept of the HCNM, see ibid., pp. 96-98.
18. For a thorough analysis of the mandate of the HCNM, see Rob Zaagman, 'The CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: An Analysis of the Mandate and the Institutional Context", in Arie Bloed, ibid., pp. 113-175.
19. For a concise description and analysis of the functions of the HCNM, see Anders Ronquist, "The Functions of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities with Special Regard to Conflict Prevention" in Eckert Klein (ed.) The Institution of a Commissioner for Human Rights and Minorities and the Prevention of Human Rights Violations, Menschenrechtszentrum der Universitat Potsdam, Berlin: A. Spitz Verlag, 1995, pp. 43-52.
20. See Chapter III of the Decisions of the Rome Council Meeting, 30 November to 1 December 1993, as reproduced in Helsinki Monitor, Vol. 5 (1994), No. 1, pp. 97-110.
21. Fatsah Ouguergouz, La Charte Africaine des Droits de Vhomme et des Peuples, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1993; regarding Article 58, see pp. 339-343.