[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 146 (Monday, September 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4538-S4539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ROBERT A. HAND

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to Robert 
``Bob'' Hand as he retires this week after 40 years of faithful service 
to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as 
the Helsinki Commission. The Commission is an independent U.S. 
Government agency Congress created in 1975 to monitor and encourage 
compliance with the Helsinki Final Act and other commitments undertaken 
since then by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 
OSCE. The Commission consists of nine members from the House of 
Representatives, nine members from the U.S. Senate, and one member each 
from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce. The House and 
Senate share the positions of chair and cochair and rotate every 2 
years, when a new Congress convenes. For the Commission to function, it 
relies on expert professional staff who must be as nonpartisan as they 
are expert in their fields.
  I am, during this 117th Congress, the chair of the Helsinki 
Commission, though for these remarks it is important to note that I 
have served on the Commission since the 103rd Congress, dating back to 
my time in the House of Representatives. When I joined the Commission 
in 1993, as the several Balkan Wars were unfolding in the former 
Yugoslavia, Bob Hand was already the go-to person on Capitol Hill for 
news and information--and explanations--of what was happening in the 
Western Balkans. I have worked with Bob for 29 years now. I have relied 
on him for 29 years. I have respected his intellect and his prodigious 
work ethic for 29 years.
  This month, Bob retires as the longest serving staff person on the 
Helsinki Commission, with 40 years of service. Bob earned a B.A. in 
international relations and Russian area studies, with a minor in 
economics, from the School of International Service at American 
University in 1983 but actually started at the Commission in 1982 as an 
intern. After he graduated, he quickly moved to full-time staff in 
1983. Throughout the years, he has shown exceptional professionalism 
and has always been willing to go above and beyond the call to do 
whatever was necessary to ensure that the Commission served mandate 
defended human rights. His deep expertise on the Western Balkans has 
made him renowned among policy professionals in Washington, and his 
appearances on Voice of America and TOP channel in Albania nearly made 
him a household name there.
  Bob worked tirelessly throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia in 
the 1990s to ensure that members of the Helsinki Commission had the 
best information and analysis of developments when formulating 
legislation and policy responses to address the aggression, war crimes, 
and ethnic cleansing which took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 
to 1995. He helped to document these atrocities through numerous 
hearings and briefings and reports. He also advised Helsinki 
Commissioners as they pressed U.S. leadership to use NATO assets to end 
the siege of Sarajevo and protect UN-designated safe havens and to lift 
the arms embargo imposed on Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  Bob was an early proponent of the establishment of the International 
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia--ICTY--to hold those 
responsible for atrocities to account, including for the Srebrenica 
genocide, which he has ensured the Commission commemorates each year in 
memory of those murdered. He has also ensured that other cases stay at 
the forefront of policy attention, particularly the Bytyqi brothers, 
three Albanian-Americans whose murdered bodies were found in Serbia in 
2001 and for whom Bob has never stopped seeking justice.
  Bob is also an expert on Albania, and he helped organize a Helsinki 
Commission visit to Albania in 1990, the first U.S. Government agency 
visit to that nation since relations were severed in 1946. He returned 
to Albania numerous times over the years, observed most of the 
country's elections over the past two decades, and through his 
thoughtful and in-depth analysis of political developments in the 
country, became a respected commentator on Albanian radio and 
television.
  Bob served on numerous U.S. delegations to OSCE Meetings, observed 
dozens of elections, and he even served as a mission member on one of 
the OSCE's first field missions: the OSCE Missions of Long Duration in 
Kosovo, Sandjak and Vojvodina, stationed in Novi Pazar in 1993. He is 
not just one our Nation's top experts on the Western Balkans; he is 
also a fount of knowledge on the OSCE itself, and especially the OSCE's 
Parliamentary Assembly, PA.
  Bob has served for many years as the Secretary of the U.S. Delegation 
to the Parliamentary Assembly. In that role,

[[Page S4539]]

he deftly ensured that our delegation was not only well-prepared both 
logistically and substantively, but also through working diplomatically 
with other delegations, he ensured that our proposals, resolutions, and 
amendments had the best possible chance of being successfully adopted. 
Most recently at the OSCE PA annual session in Birmingham, Bob worked 
diligently with several other delegations to ensure that a critical 
resolution condemning Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was 
adopted with the strongest possible language.
  Bob has also always been a voice of reason, humanity, and fairness. 
He did not refrain from criticizing U.S. policy when it was warranted 
and several times advocated that the United States proactively discuss 
its own shortcomings with other OSCE countries, including after reports 
of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, surfaced in 2003. Among 
Commission staff, he was always quick to support his colleagues, but 
also did not shy away from debating the pros and cons of ideas. Above 
all, Bob has always sought to do what is right--for the Helsinki 
Commission, for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, for the 
United States, and for the promotion of human rights, democracy, and 
rule of law throughout the 57 nations of the OSCE.
  A little over 2 years ago, I paid tribute to another Commission 
staffer, Erika Schlager, on her retirement after 34 years of service. 
It so happens that Bob and Erika are husband and wife. Bob and Erika 
have devoted their lives--75 years and counting--to defending and 
promoting human rights. They have been passionate and remarkably 
effective advocates for the world's downtrodden and disenfranchised.
  The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, former Anglican Archbishop of Cape 
Town, South Africa, remarked, ``It means a great deal to those who are 
oppressed to know that they are not alone.'' For the past 40 years, 
oppressed people around the world, but especially in Eastern and 
Central Europe, knew they weren't alone because Bob Hand was fighting 
for them. I know I speak on behalf of my Senate colleagues, my fellow 
Commissioners, and Bob's wide circle of professional colleagues and 
admirers when I say that I will miss him. I am grateful for his 
stalwart service and wish him all the best for his future endeavors.

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