STATEMENT in Response to the Secretary General’s Presentation of the 2020 OSCE Programme Outline

02 May, 2019

STATEMENT
in Response to the Secretary General’s Presentation of the 2020 OSCE Programme Outline
as delivered by Ambassador Armen Papikyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia, at the 1226th meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council
May 02, 2019

Mr. Chairman,

We welcome the Secretary General to the Permanent Council and thank him for the presentation of the Programme Outline for the year 2020.

Our delegation will present detailed comments on concrete mandates and fund managers during the ACMF discussions. At this point in time let me refer to certain issues.

We note the concern of the Secretary General on the impact of zero-nominal growth on the organizational capacity of the OSCE and the confidence in his “Fit for Purpose” agenda which may eventually serve the “purpose”. In the Programme Outline the Secretary General’s reform agenda is referred to as a “shared’ agenda of Secretariat and participating States. We believe that building and maintaining trust between executive structures and participating Statesis a continued process, critical for our Organization to deliver meaningful results.

Armenia reiterates its full support to the agreed mediation format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship and the PRCiO . Armenia will continue advocating expansion of human, financial and technological capacities of the PRCiO Office, in line with previously reached agreements with the view of enabling proper implementation of its mandate.

We encourage the HLPG to continue its activities strictly in line with its mandate on elaborating options of military peacekeeping operation. We reiterate our strong concern on the current composition of the HLPG. Therefore, the HLPG should be staffed in such a way to enjoy the trust of all participating States particularly all parties to the conflict and be able to proceed in neutral and impartial manner in the very sensitive environment of the conflict. Therefore, certain rectification is needed.

We encourage the CPC to focus on early warning and conflict prevention activities in line with MC Decision 3/11. Any activities in the field of dialogue facilitation and mediation support should be based on full respect for agreed mediation formats.

We support the priorities of the RFOM and ODHIR and are ready to continue constructive and fruitful cooperation with them. In our view the programmatic activities of these institutions should encompass entire OSCE region. The OSCE institutions should mainstream in their agenda the human rights of people residing in conflict affected areas.

The focus of the RFOM Office on such challenges as silencing critical voices of free media, including under the pretext of “extremism”, “justification of terrorism” or “hate speech” is important as ever. We encourage the RFOM Office to outline measures for protection of journalists, including in conflict situations in line with the OSCE Milan Ministerial Decision on Safety of Journalism.

We reiterate our position on continuing of full and unrestricted participation of independent NGO’s from the entire OSCE area in the human dimension events.

We welcome that the OCEEA’s programmatic activities are aimed at strengthening economic and environmental co-operation as a tool for confidence building. Armenia will continue to advocate prevention and combating corruption, economic empowerment of women and youth and human capital development. Activities of the OCEEA in the field of connectivity including ExB projects should be in line with the letter and spirit of the Hamburg Ministerial Decision, which has recognized connectivity as part of economic cooperation, which is based among others on non-discriminatory partnership, full respect for the interests of all OSCE participating States.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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