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As delivered by Ambassador Michael R. Carpenter
at the Permanent Council, Skopje
December 1, 2023
First of all, Ambassador Djundev, dear Igor, thank you. Thank you and Foreign Minister Osmani for your exceptional leadership and, I think it is no exaggeration to say, for your Herculean efforts to keep this organization focused on its fundamental principles and for your insistence not to losing the forest for the benefit of the trees. You said at the start of the year that it was about people. This is absolutely correct and – with all due respect to all members of this Council – it is not just about us diplomats. It’s about people like Tatiana and Oleksander. I would have liked all the members of this Council to take the time to listen to them during yesterday’s side event. Oleksander described the inhumane conditions of his detention by Russian authorities – humiliation, abuse and violations of his dignity. The irreversible pain that remained forever etched in his memory and that he could never, ever erase from his mind. Or the fact that Tatiana’s son is still languishing somewhere in the Russian filtration gulag. Disappeared and torn from his family.
Every minute we spend debating the rules or technical details of this organization is one less minute we spend talking about the suffering of people like Oleksander and Tatiana. It’s not abstract. It’s real and it’s happening right now in Ukraine. Filtration, torture, forced disappearances. Everything is happening right now. Yes, this is the Helsinki Final Act and the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. But it is not just about abstract principles of international law. It is about the real-time lives and suffering of children, women and men who are targeted simply because they are Ukrainian.
Today, I believe that the stronger our organization is, the more we can contribute – in our own way – to supporting Ukraine. We have proven that we can make a real difference by using the Moscow Mechanism to document war crimes in Bucha. By bringing victims of filtration camps to side events. By providing psychological support to children and families, and telling their stories every week to the Permanent Council. Bilaterally, our countries can support Ukraine militarily; within this Council, we can support it morally. In the long term, we will also support Russia, because the principles agreed in Helsinki and Paris will actually benefit all citizens of the OSCE region, regardless of their nationality.
To our friends in Malta, we thank you for agreeing to take on the enormous responsibility of upholding our values. We have confidence in your leadership. We are committed to supporting you in every way possible. There is so much work to do: encouraging peace in the South Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the de-occupation of Georgia. Supporting democracy and the rule of law in Moldova and the Western Balkans. Advancing connectivity and trade in Central Asia. Combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We know you’ll take on all this and more.
To Secretary General Schmid, dear Helga, we greatly appreciate your leadership of this organization and your ability to bring leaders together to advance bold new initiatives, like the high-level event on climate change.
To Director Mecacci, dear Matteo, your organization is at the heart of our common values: defending human rights and strengthening democratic institutions.
Dear Representative for Media Freedom, Dear Teresa – Your voice on media freedom is essential to supporting democracy in our region.
Dear High Commissioner, dear Kairat, You know how essential the rights of national minorities are to peace, stability and democracy and we will continue to support the work of your organization.
Dear colleagues, we have a lot of work to do. Count on the United States to work with you to defend our core values. The more united we are, the stronger we are and the more we can do to uphold the principles that we all – at some point – are committed to upholding.
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