[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 31, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1665-E1667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2007

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I hereby submit, for the 
Record, the text of my report to you on the activities of the U.S. 
Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, held in early July in 
Kyiv, Ukraine.
  I had the honor to chair the U.S. Delegation, which included Senator 
Ben Cardin as the deputy head of delegation, as well as our Majority 
Leader, Mr. Steny Hoyer. Other participants on the U.S. Delegation were 
Representatives Chris Smith, Marcy Kaptur, Louise McIntosh Slaughter, 
Michael McNulty, Robert Aderholt, Mike McIntyre, Hilda L. Solis, G.K. 
Butterfield, Doris Matsui and Gwen S. Moore.
  As the report details, the delegation was active at the Annual 
Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which is an inter-
parliamentary body consisting of 56 participating States from North 
America, Europe, the Caucuses and Central Asia, as well as numerous 
partner states from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Like the 
OSCE as a whole, its mandate embraces the comprehensive definition of 
international security to include not only the traditional military 
political-military issues

[[Page E1666]]

but also human rights, economic cooperation and environmental 
protection.
  In submitting this report, I want to stress the value of American 
engagement in world affairs, particularly by Members of Congress. In 
Kyiv, we engaged in a dialogue on issues of concern not only to us, but 
to our counterparts from other countries. Having served as the 
President of the OSCE PA, I remain active as President Emeritus as well 
as a Special Representative on Mediterranean Affairs. Senator Cardin 
serves as a Vice President. In Kyiv, our colleague Hilda Solis was 
elected Vice Chair of the ``Third'' Committee on Democracy, Human 
Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Members of the U.S. delegation 
introduced resolutions, suggested amendments and participated in the 
voting which led to the adoption of a declaration. The text of the 
declaration can be found on the Assembly's Website, www.oscepa.org.
 Our activity was not confined to the meeting halls. We also met 
President Yushchenko and other Ukrainian officials, in recognition of 
the importance of Ukraine. We laid wreaths at Babyn Yar and at the 
Ukrainian Famine memorial. We traveled to Chernobyl, the site of the 
nuclear accident in 1986.
  These activities, I would argue, advance our country's national 
interest. The U.S. Delegation represented the wonderful diversity of 
the United States population. It also highlighted a diversity of 
opinion on numerous issues. It nevertheless revealed a common hope to 
make the world a better place, not just for Americans but for all 
humanity. The delegation helped to counter the negative image many have 
about our country.
                                        Commission on Security and


                                        Cooperation in Europe,

                                    Washington, DC, July 25, 2007.
     Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
     Speaker, House of Representatives,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Madam Speaker: I write to thank you for designating me 
     to head the U.S. Delegation to the Sixteenth Annual Session 
     of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA), and to report 
     to you on the work of our bipartisan delegation. The 
     delegation participated fully in the activity of the Standing 
     Committee and the plenary sessions as well as in the 
     Assembly's three committees.
       Joining me as Delegation leaders were Commission Co-
     Chairman Senator Benjamin L. Cardin and Majority Leader Steny 
     H. Hoyer. Other Helsinki Commissioners who also participated 
     include the Ranking Member, Rep. Christopher H. Smith, and 
     Representatives Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Robert B. 
     Aderholt, Mike McIntyre, Hilda L. Solis and G.K. Butterfield. 
     They were joined by Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Michael R. 
     McNulty, Doris Matsui and Gwen S. Moore.
       This year's Assembly, hosted by the Verkhovna Rada, 
     Ukraine's Parliament, in Kyiv, July 5-9, brought together 234 
     parliamentarians from 50 OSCE States, representatives from 
     several Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation, as well as 
     delegates representing Afghanistan, a Partner for 
     Cooperation. Five delegations were headed by parliamentary 
     leaders. The U.S. delegation, with 13 Members, was the 
     largest in Kyiv. The designated theme for this year's Annual 
     Session was ``Implementation of OSCE Commitments.''
       Assembly President Goran Lennmarker (Sweden) opened the 
     Inaugural Plenary Session which included an address by 
     Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who took the 
     opportunity to discuss Ukraine's commitment to democratic 
     development and challenges. President Yushchenko urged 
     delegates to recognize, in their respective parliaments, the 
     genocidal nature of the Ukraine Famine, the Holodomor. OSCE 
     Chairman-in-Office Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Foreign 
     Minister of Spain, also addressed the plenary before taking 
     questions from the parliamentarians.
       At the Standing Committee, the leadership body of the 
     Assembly composed of the Heads of Delegations representing 
     the 56 OSCE participating States, I presented a summary of my 
     activities as Special Representative on Mediterranean 
     Affairs, including my visits in June to Israel and Jordan. 
     During the Kyiv meeting, I convened a special meeting on the 
     Mediterranean Dimension of the OSCE, attended by 
     approximately 100 parliamentarians from Algeria, Egypt, 
     Israel, and Jordan as well as many of the OSCE participating 
     States.
       The Standing Committee also heard reports from other 
     Assembly Special Representatives. The OSCE PA Treasurer, 
     Senator Jerry Grafstein (Canada), reported that the Assembly 
     was operating well within its overall budget guidelines and 
     that KPMG, the Assembly's external auditors, again had 
     delivered a positive assessment of the Assembly's financial 
     management. The Standing Committee unanimously approved the 
     Treasurer's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007/2008, 
     including an increase of 4.18% over last year's expenditures. 
     OSCE PA Secretary General R. Spencer Oliver reported on the 
     International Secretariat's activities.
       Members of the U.S. Delegation actively participated in the 
     work of the Assembly's three General Committees: Political 
     Affairs and Security; Economic Affairs, Science, Technology 
     and Environment; and Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian 
     Questions. Each committee considered its own resolution as 
     well as nine of the 10 supplementary items registered before 
     the session. One supplementary item was debated in plenary. 
     Senator Cardin introduced a supplemental item on ``Combating 
     Anti-Semitism, Racism, Xenophobia and other forms of 
     Intolerance against Muslims and Roma,'' and seven other U.S. 
     delegates introduced a total of 25 amendments to either a 
     committee resolution or to a supplementary item. All were 
     adopted.
       The U.S. Delegation also was instrumental in garnering 
     necessary support for supplementary items and amendments 
     proposed by our friends and allies among the participating 
     States. The supplementary items considered and debated in 
     Kyiv, other than Senator Cardin's, included ``The Role and 
     the Status of the Parliamentary Assembly within the OSCE''; 
     ``The Illicit Air Transport of Small Arms and Light Weapons 
     and their Ammunition''; ``Environmental Security Strategy''; 
     ``Conflict Settlement in the OSCE area''; Strengthening OSCE 
     Engagement with Human Rights Defenders and National Human 
     Rights Institutions''; ``The Ban on Cluster Bombs''; 
     ``Liberalization of Trans-Atlantic Trade''; ``Women in Peace 
     and Security''; and, ``Strengthening of Counteraction of 
     Trafficking Persons in the OSCE Member States.''
       Attached is a copy of the Kyiv Declaration adopted by 
     participants at the Assembly's closing plenary, which 
     includes the input of the U.S. Delegation.
       Following her appearance before the Helsinki Commission in 
     Washington on June 21 during our hearing on ``Guantanamo: 
     Implications for U.S. Human Rights Leadership,'' Belgian 
     Senate President Anne-Marie Lizin, the OSCE PA Special 
     Representative on Guantanamo, presented her third report on 
     the status of the camp to a general Plenary Session of the 
     Assembly. This report followed her second visit to the 
     detention facility at Guantanamo on June 20, 2007 and gave 
     the Assembly a balanced presentation which concluded that the 
     facility should be closed.
       The OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues, Tone 
     Tingsgard (Sweden), hosted an informal working breakfast to 
     discuss gender issues where she presented her plan for future 
     actions addressing gender issues within the OSCE PA. Members 
     of the U.S. Delegation participated in the discussion at this 
     meeting.
       During the course of the Kyiv meeting members of the U.S. 
     Delegation held a series of formal as well as informal 
     bilateral meetings, including talks with parliamentarians 
     from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, 
     parliamentary delegations from the Mediterranean Partners for 
     Cooperation, including Israel, and Afghanistan. The U.S. 
     Delegation hosted a reception for parliamentary delegations 
     from Canada and the United Kingdom.
       On the final day of the Kyiv meeting, the Assembly re-
     elected Goran Lennmarker (Sweden) as President. Mr. Hans 
     Raidel (Germany) was elected Treasurer. Four Vice Presidents 
     were elected in Kyiv: Anne-Marie Lizin (Belgium), Jerry 
     Grafstein (Canada), Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland), and Panos 
     Kammenos (Greece).
       Rep. Hilda Solis was elected Vice Chair of the General 
     Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian 
     Questions, which is responsible for addressing humanitarian 
     and human rights-related threats to security and serves as a 
     forum for examining the potential for cooperation within 
     these areas. She joins Senator Cardin, whose term as Vice 
     President extends until 2009, and me as OSCE PA President 
     Emeritus, in ensuring active U.S. engagement in the 
     Assembly's proceedings for the coming year.
       While the Delegation's work focused heavily on OSCE PA 
     matters, the venue presented an opportunity to advance U.S. 
     relations with our Ukrainian hosts. While in Kyiv, the U.S. 
     Delegation met with Ukrainian President Yushchenko for 
     lengthy talks on bilateral issues, his country's aspirations 
     for further Euro-Atlantic integration, energy security, 
     international support for Chornobyl containment, and 
     challenges to Ukraine's sovereignty and democratic 
     development. The President discussed the political situation 
     in Ukraine and the development of the May 27 agreement that 
     provides for pre-term parliamentary elections scheduled for 
     September 30, 2007.
       The Delegation also visited and held wreath-laying 
     ceremonies at two significant sites in the Ukrainian capital: 
     the Babyn Yar Memorial, commemorating the more than 100,000 
     Ukrainians killed there during World War II--including 33,000 
     Jews from Kyiv that were shot in a two-day period in 
     September 1941; and the Famine Genocide Memorial (1932-33) 
     dedicated to the memory of the millions of Ukrainians starved 
     to death by Stalin's Soviet regime in the largest man-made 
     famine of the 20th century.
       The delegation traveled to the Chernobyl exclusion zone and 
     visited the site where on April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor 
     of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in 
     the world's worst nuclear accident. While in the zone, the 
     delegation visited the abandoned city of Prypiat, the once 
     bustling residence of 50,000 located a short distance from 
     the nuclear plant. Members toured the Chernobyl facilities 
     and discussed ongoing economic and environmental challenges 
     with local experts and international efforts to find a 
     durable solution to the containment of large quantities of 
     radioactive materials still located at the plant.

[[Page E1667]]

       I hope this summary of the Delegation's activity is useful 
     to you, and let me again thank you for making this trip 
     possible. The Seventeenth Annual Session of the OSCE 
     Parliamentary Assembly will be held early next July in 
     Astana, Kazakhstan, and I hope we can count on your support 
     once again in ensuring that U.S. interests abroad are 
     advanced through active participation in the OSCE PA.
           Sincerely,
                                                Alcee L. Hastings,
     Chairman.

                          ____________________