DUSHANBE, September 23, 2009, Asia-Plus — A Tajik delegation will attend the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) that will be held in Warsaw from September 28 to October 9.Speaking to reporters in Dushanbe yesterday, representatives from the OSCE Office in Tajikistan said that the Tajik delegation that will be led by known Tajik lawyer Rahmatillo Zoirov will consist of representatives of government and non-governmental organizations.
The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting is the single most important yearly OSCE event focusing on human rights and democracy in Europe, North America, and Central Asia.
The term “human dimension” describes the set of norms and activities related to human rights, the rule of law, and democracy that are regarded within the OSCE as one of the three pillars of its comprehensive security concept, along with the politico-military and the economic and environmental dimensions.
Every year in Warsaw, the OSCE”s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes a two-week conference, the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM). The HDIM is a forum where OSCE participating States discuss the implementation of human dimension commitments that were adopted by consensus at prior OSCE Summits or Ministerial Meetings.
These commitments are not legally binding norms; instead, they are politically binding – a political promise to comply with the standards elaborated in OSCE documents. Follow-up meetings to review the implementation of the commitments is based on the principle that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state concerned.
The OSCE Permanent Council sets the agenda for the HDIM, choosing three topics to be treated in depth on the three “special days” of the conference. This year, the topics for the special days are: human rights education; freedom of expression, free media and information; and Roma/Sinti and, in particular, early education for Roma and Sinti children.
