Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia issued the official comment on the non-admission of representatives of the Republic of South Ossetia to participate in the OSCE Conference (HDIM) in Warsaw.
“From September 26 to October 7, 2022, Warsaw, with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), will be hosting the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, where representatives of the member countries of this organization will have the opportunity to discuss the state of affairs in this area, assess the fulfillment of the obligations of states to respect human rights and freedoms,” the Foreign Ministry said in the commentary.
The Foreign Ministry noted that "delegates from organizations of the non-governmental sector from the Republic of South Ossetia have repeatedly actively participated in the work of this forum, which has always been open to representatives of civil society."
“However, this year the organizers of the forum decided to change the rules, putting forward unrealistic requirements for delegates from the Republic of South Ossetia when registering as participants, and the official authorities of the Republic of Poland, hosting the forum as the OSCE Chairmanship, blocked any opportunity for them to enter their territory.
As a result, contrary to the openness declared by the OSCE, everything was done to ensure that representatives of the non-governmental organizations of South Ossetia could not take part in it and convey to the rest of the participants reliable information on the areas of their activities and their position on topical humanitarian issues and problems,” the Ministry stated.
The Foreign Ministry added: we are forced to regard what is happening as demonstrative discriminatory measures against representatives of South Ossetia and the unacceptable gross violation of the fundamental principles of the organization itself."
