OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism invoked to examine serious concerns about the Russian Federation’s fulfilment of its human rights commitments

Thirty-eight OSCE participating States invoked the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on 28 July 2022 in order “to establish a mission of experts to look into and report on the ongoing concerns […] identified as particularly serious threats to the fulfilment of the provisions of the OSCE human dimension by the Russian Federation, to assess Russia’s legal and administrative practice in light of its OSCE commitments, to establish the facts, and to provide recommendations and advice”.

The Moscow Mechanism was last invoked on 2 June 2022 to “consider, follow up and build upon the findings of the Moscow Mechanism report received by OSCE participating States on 12 April” addressing “the human rights and humanitarian impacts of the Russian Federation’s invasion and acts of war, supported by Belarus, on the people of Ukraine, within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and territorial waters”. It provides the opportunity for participating States to send missions of experts to assist in the resolution of a particular question or problem relating to the human dimension. Further information is available here.

Any information relevant to the work of the Moscow Mechanism can be sent to the following email address: moscowmechanism2022@odihr.pl. The information will then be forwarded to the expert mission, once established.

The 38 countries that have invoked the Moscow Mechanism in this case are: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.