Washington, DC - Ambassador Michael G. Kozak will lead the U.S. delegation to the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to be held in Warsaw, Poland, September 10-21, 2018. This annual meeting will bring together hundreds of civil society representatives and government officials from North America, Europe, and Central Asia for talks to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The participants will take stock of how the 57 OSCE participating States are implementing the full range of their human rights commitments, including those on: fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association and religion or belief; the rule of law, democratic elections and governance; media freedom online and offline, and combating anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance.
A major U.S. focus will be Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, including abuses by Russia-led forces in the Donbas and occupation authorities in Crimea, as well as Russia’s serious human rights violations at home. We also will spotlight concerns in multiple countries of the OSCE region, such as: the shrinking space for civil society, persecution of human rights defenders, the safety of journalists, repressive measures against peaceful members of ethnic and religious groups, and hate crimes.
Members of the U.S. delegation to the 2018 HDIM include:
- Ambassador Michael G. Kozak, Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Head of Delegation;
- Ambassador Samuel D. Brownback, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom;
- Michael J. Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs;
- Chargé d’Affaires Harry Kamian, U.S. Mission to the OSCE;
- Kristina Arriaga, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom;
Kyle Parker, Chief of Staff, U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission).