The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The United States is pleased to welcome High Commissioner Robinson to the Permanent Council today. The United Nations has been one of the OSCE's closest partners since cooperation between the two organizations began in 1992.

Although the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has no formal cooperation agreement at the Secretariat level, the U.S. strongly supports the formalized cooperation agreement that was signed, as High Commissioner Robinson pointed out, in 1998 with the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, whose mandate most closely parallels the work of UNHCHR.

The U.S. encourages increased cooperation at all levels between our organizations. An immediate first step of this high level cooperation will be the July 22 presentation of the joint OSCE, UNHCHR, and UNICEF report on Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe, at which the Director of ODIHR Ambassador Stoudmann will represent the OSCE.

The summary of regional initiatives and contacts in this report is a most useful tool, and we hope that it will facilitate contact between experts in the field. One of the best services the OSCE can provide is as a platform for experts to come together.

As the OSCE prepares for a special session on combating trafficking in persons at our annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, we would also appreciate UNHCHR's input in developing the agenda for that session. We would like this meeting to be useful both for international organizations and NGOs, as well as in preparation for the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting.

Creating networks between organizations on important global issues will help prevent terrorists and organized crime organizations from finding support, holes to slip through, or weak links to exploit.

We would also like to welcome the cooperation between the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, in particular in the Working Group on Minorities. The U.S. encourages increased joint efforts to support freedom of religion or other beliefs, which will also help diminish support for terrorists and extremists. We welcome your ideas on specific additional steps that OSCE participating States can take in order to counter the growing threat of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the OSCE region.

I would note that xenophobia, preventing discrimination, and protecting minorities will be discussed at the 54th Session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, which begins on July 29th. Madame High Commissioner, I encourage your office to forward to the OSCE the results of this meeting so that it can inform our work here.

In closing, I would like to thank again High Commissioner Robinson for coming here today to brief us at the Permanent Council. There are many issues and topics our organizations should continue to work jointly on, including human rights training, rule of law, minority rights, religious freedom, gender issues, and trafficking. We look forward to further cooperation both here and in the field, and we encourage the next High Commissioner to come to the Permanent Council early in his or her tenure to establish an annual UNHCHR briefing to the Permanent Council. Thank you.