Outcome documents of the 2021 Parallel Civil Society Conference: Stockholm Declaration on the Need to Critically Review and Reinvigorate OSCE Work on Conflicts to Strengthen Security, Protect Human Rights and Uphold the Helsinki Principles

The Civic Solidarity Platform, a network of more than 90 human rights and peacebuilding NGOs from across the OSCE region, convened the 2021 OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference in Stockholm on 1 December, building upon the tradition of OSCE parallel civil society conferences in Astana in 2010, Vilnius in 2011, Dublin in 2012, Kyiv in 2013, Basel in 2014, Belgrade in 2015, Hamburg in 2016, Vienna in 2017, Milano in 2018, Bratislava in 2019, and Tirana in 2020. At the conference, activists from across the OSCE region discussed and endorsed the Outcome Document, developed by the Civic Solidarity Platform.

The Outcome Document includes the Stockholm Declaration on the Need to Critically Review and Strengthen the OSCE’s Work on Conflicts to Strengthen Security, Protect Human Rights and Uphold the Helsinki Principles and Civil Society Recommendations to Participants of the Ministerial Council Meeting in Stockholm.

The Stockholm Declaration and some of the chapters of the Recommendations are based on the results of expert workshops and consultations, organised by the Civic Solidarity Platform with the support of the Swedish OSCE Chairpersonship.

The outcome document is addressed to the governments of the OSCE participating States that will be gathering in Stockholm for this year’s meeting of the Ministerial Council the Permanent Council, as well as the OSCE political bodies and institutions, including the current and the incoming Chairpersonships, the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Secretary-General, the OSCE Secretariat, and the OSCE field operations.

We hope that this analysis and the recommendations that flow from it will be studied carefully at the Ministerial Council meeting and in the work of OSCE. We look forward to the reaction from all interested stakeholders. While some of our recommendations may be implemented immediately, others relate to systemic problems and will require consistent effort over a longer period of time. We express our commitment as civil society actors to continue to actively engage in the work of OSCE in the spirit of the Helsinki Principles and our determination to contribute to the full realization of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law throughout the OSCE region.

The Stockholm Declaration can be downloaded here in English and Russian.