2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Working Session 12: Rights of Migrants
Intervention read by Christopher Hull, representing Secure Freedom (Center for Security Policy)
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Below is the prepared text for Mr. Hull’s intervention:
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Monday, 17 September 2018
Working Session 11
Fundamental Freedoms I, Including Freedom of Expression
The following intervention was read yesterday at the OSCE conference in Warsaw by Stephen Coughlin, representing Unconstrained Analytics.
The principle topic of the intervention was the Turkish religious affairs directorate Diyanet (official government website, Wikipedia entry), which claims jurisdiction over all Turkish Muslims in Europe unto the nth generation, and which is said to be crucial for assuring calm and lawful behavior by ethnic Turks in urban neighborhoods throughout Europe. Maj. Coughlin’s principal point is that discussing such matters is now considered “bigotry” by the OSCE’s Code of Conduct.
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
For more on the OSCE’s Code of Conduct, see “The Successful Subversion of the OSCE”.
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Freedom of the Media, Session 3
Intervention read by Henrik Clausen, representing Wiener Akademikerbund
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Below is the prepared text for Mr. Clausen’s intervention:
Below is the prepared text for an intervention read yesterday afternoon by Christopher Hull of the Center for Security Policy (Secure Freedom) at OSCE Warsaw. The video of the intervention will be along in due course.
For more on the OSCE’s Code of Conduct, see “The Successful Subversion of the OSCE”.
Intervention before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Participating States and Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
At the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), Warsaw, Poland
Working Session 11: Fundamental Freedoms II
September 17, 2018
How ironic that this organization is itself violating fundamental freedoms.
For instance, at a February meeting this year, a senior official claimed that civil society must adhere to OSCE commitments.[1]
But we are not required to abide by those commitments — you are.
The OSCE Code of Conduct for Staff/Mission Members says you, and I quote, “shall comply with the… commitments of the OSCE.”[2] And what commitments?
| 1. | First, “respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience…or belief, for all without distinction as to…belief, political or other opinion.”[3] | |
| 2. | Second, taking only “measures which do not endanger freedom of information and expression” in this space[4]; and | |
| 3. | Third, that civil society members, “specifically those with relevant experience, are particularly encouraged to participate in the discussion of the selected topics and to provide their suggestions and recommendations.”[5] |
But in spite of such requirements, ODIHR has now gone further.
For this meeting, you required us to acknowledge a new “Code of Conduct.” It says, “[p]articipants shall refrain from presenting…any slogans that might be provoking,… likely to give rise to violence, [or] discriminating [against] other persons on the basis of…religion or belief, political or other opinion.”
But that is what you are doing.
That’s why Secure Freedom joined 28 civil society representatives from 14 countries in speaking out against your repeated attempts to shut down our fundamental freedoms.[6]
That’s also why the U.S. Opening Statement objected “to content-based restrictions on the participation of civil society.”[7]
And yet last week, ODIHR used its power to interrupt Civitas Christiana Foundation for expressing concern about threats, repression and intolerance by those who hold radical views of sexuality.[8]
The truth? OSCE’s own Code of Conduct says:
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Monday, 17 September 2018
Working Session 10
Fundamental Freedoms I, Including Freedom of Expression
Intervention read by Henrik Clausen, representing Wiener Akademikerbund
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Monday, 17 September 2018
Working Session 10
Fundamental Freedoms I, Including Freedom of Expression
Intervention read by Clare Lopez, representing the Center for Security Policy
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Monday, 17 September 2018
Working Session 10
Fundamental Freedoms I, Including Freedom of Expression
Intervention read by Stephen Coughlin, representing Unconstrained Analytics
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Thursday, 13 September 2018
Session 9: Using Democracy to Prevent Aggressive Nationalism
Intervention read by Henrik Clausen, representing Wiener Akademikerbund
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Below is the prepared text for Mr. Clausen’s intervention:
For the past nine years the Counterjihad Collective has been participating in and reporting on the gradual Islamization of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It’s been a long, tedious, and exhausting process, but now the subversion of the OSCE is all but complete. For readers who are interested in the details, see the OSCE Archives.
As with other trans-national institutions, the Islamization of the OSCE was accomplished via an alliance between Muslims (in this case, primarily Turkey) and the progressive Left. This year, for the first time, the OSCE has officially established a framework to silence critics of Islam and sharia. For an organization that was founded to promote free speech, that’s quite an accomplishment.
I’ve already posted material from the 2018 ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) meeting of the OSCE in Warsaw, and will be posting more. For future reference, rather than repeatedly quoting it, here is the directive from OSCE headquarters mandating tolerance, inclusion, non-discrimination, etc blah yak. The relevant section is excerpted below, but the entire document may be downloaded (Word format) from the official OSCE website.
Under “§ 3. Other provisions”, the OSCE Code of Conduct states:
| 1. | Participants shall refrain from presenting or shouting any slogans that might be:
ODIHR reserves the right to instruct HDIM moderators to interrupt any Participant who speaks in violation of these principles. In case of repeated non-compliance ODIHR reserves the right to void the Participant of the right to speak at the session, or as a last resort of the right to further participate at HDIM. |
See also the op-ed about the OSCE by Chris Hull of the Center for Security Policy.
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Freedom of the Media, Session 5:
“Worst Practice” against independent media in Britain
Intervention read by Henrik Clausen, representing Wiener Akademikerbund
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Below is the prepared text for Mr. Clausen’s intervention:
2018 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Freedom of the Media, Session 2:
Dealing with Shadow Censorship
Intervention read by Henrik Clausen, representing Wiener Akademikerbund
Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
Below is the prepared text for Mr. Clausen’s intervention:
Last Wednesday the Center for Security Policy hosted a panel discussion, “Free Speech Under Fire: The Red-Green Axis’ Unrestricted Warfare in OSCE and Beyond”. The panelists were Christopher Hull, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, Clare Lopez, and Deborah Weiss.
There is also a CSP research paper (PDF) available for download, which includes material by Frank Gaffney, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, Robert Spencer, Deborah Weiss, and Clare Lopez.
The video of the full event is here.
Below are excerpts from panel discussion featuring Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.
1. Elisabeth discusses her prosecution for “hate speech” in Austria:
2. On the significance to Americans of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE):
3. “Hate Speech is Free Speech”:
From Frank Gaffney, the president of CSP:
Free Speech Under Fire: The Red-Green Axis’ Unrestricted Warfare in OSCE and Beyond
(Washington, DC): The West’s free speech is under fire. It seems that every day, from every direction, the enemies of freedom encroach more upon this most sacred right. We see “snowflakes” on college campuses shouting down or even attacking speakers with whom they disagree. We see the politically correct mainstream media exploding in outrage over every utterance of President Donald J. Trump that does not meet their politically exacting standards. We see politicians too mealy-mouthed to tell the truth — especially when it comes to the brutal, totalitarian Islamic ideology known as Sharia, of which the meekest critique generates faux cries of “Islamophobia.” We see social media giants stamping out speech of those with whom they disagree, while they allow the speech of jihadis to flourish. We see international organizations, from the United Nations to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the little-known Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), working each in its own insidious way to strangle expression.
And from everywhere, we hear the trope, “hate speech.” What is hate speech, exactly?
Sunni Islamic Law is a compendium of rulings that enjoy the consensus of the scholars — that is, the interpretations of the Koran and the sayings of Mohammed that comprise the body of the Sharia, and that were agreed upon by all the major judicial scholars during the classical period of Islam.
The interpretation, or ijtihad, of Islam’s sacred texts by legal scholars ended about a thousand years ago. “The Gate of Ijtihad is closed”, as the saying goes — all that could be learned about Islamic law was discovered by that time, and no further interpretation is allowed. The Sharia is now set in stone. The modern Islamic jurist has only to apply the law in a thorough and rigorous fashion. Innovation, or bid’ah, is not permitted.
As you may remember, during last month’s OSCE conference in Warsaw various Counterjihad activists who read out interventions that criticized Islam were rebuked by the moderators, who said it was the “consensus of the participating States” that such intolerant speech would not be permitted.
The frequently-repeated assertion of “consensus” reminds me of the consensus of the scholars that set Islamic law in stone a thousand years ago.
In her report on OSCE Warsaw, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff noted:
The decreed truth for the OSCE since 2002 has been that its member states strenuously reject identification of terrorism and extremism with a particular religion. Ergo, there is no discussion and the problem is solved — that is why Europe is incapable of putting a stop to the terrorism coming from just one particular group.
So it seems that the Gate of Ijtihad closed for the OSCE in 2002 — a millennium after it did for Islam, but better late than never!
In the video below Christopher Hull, who was a member of the Counterjihad team at OSCE Warsaw last month, appears on Liz Wheeler’s program on OAN to discuss the sharia-compliant behavior of the staff and leadership at the OSCE:
For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.
The following report on last month’s OSCE conference in Warsaw by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was published by JournalistenWatch and kindly translated by JLH. See the OSCE Archives for more on the events in Warsaw this year.
The Truth Versus the OSCE’s Decreed Truth
by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff
September 26, 2017
In the last few days, Europe’s largest and best attended conference on the subject of human rights (“human dimension”) came to an end. There were said to be 1500 attending. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe invited diplomats and experts, as well as the general public to an annual discussion in Warsaw about observance of human rights standards in the OSCE area. For the first time, the conference took place in Warsaw’s EURO soccer stadium, which was welcome because of the size of the locale and the number of participants.
Our delegation included members from the United States, Denmark and Austria. It is regrettable that many European fighters for freedom of expression couldn’t make up their minds to come to Warsaw. They would have contributed to a stronger presence, which is so important nowadays. For example, a deficit in (allotted) time and personnel prevented mentioning many of the considerable restrictions of freedom of expression in Germany (German justice minister Heiko Maas and his restrictive law passed at the end of June), as well as the many judgments and harassments against alleged cases of “hate speech” or the problems of the AfD in renting locations in the run-up to the election.
The first two days were devoted to the official opening, with speeches by politicians, and to freedom of the press and freedom to assemble. Pax Europa spoke first about the scandalous verdict against Michael Stürzenberger and then about the problems of the organizers of the “March for the Family” in Vienna[1]. Neither of these subjects elicited a response from the governments in question.
The sessions on Thursday and Friday were concerned with the subjects of religious freedom as well as tolerance and non-discrimination. Customarily, these subject areas are not only contentious, but also characterized by full lists of speakers. This year, too: Early queuing to get on the speakers list, contentious positions, but also — something new — rebukes from the moderator, referencing OSCE “commitments” that must be adhered to. These rebukes were exclusively directed at our delegation.
An OSCE employee told us personally that our truth was not his truth, nor that of the OSCE. There was no discussion. He noted parenthetically that the OSCE has sought ways to exclude our delegation from participating, but did not succeed because of its own rules concerning civil society.
The decreed truth for the OSCE since 2002 has been that its member states strenuously reject identification of terrorism and extremism with a particular religion. Ergo, there is no discussion and the problem is solved — that is why Europe is incapable of putting a stop to the terrorism coming from just one particular group. The saying goes: Know your enemy. If I cannot name the enemy or investigate it, I cannot expect it to be defeated. We might also ask what would have happened if this kind of law had prevailed in the 1930s.