"I am disappointed with the declaration. We need to recognize however some progress compared to the last year Helsinki declaration of OSCE PA… We want to end sanctions imposed on the OSCE PA delegates, we want freedom to go to all the territories of the OSCE state-members. As of today there are sanctions against the Russian delegation, there are sanctions against the French delegation in Ukraine, there are delegates that are under sanctions in Azerbaijan. My motion called on states to reaffirm the right for all OSCE delegates to travel for their missions,” Michel Voisin said.
Earlier on Friday, the 25th Annual Session of the OSCE PA closed in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the adoption of the 2016 Tbilisi Declaration focusing on security, migration and human rights issues.
One resolution included in the declaration, proposed by a Swiss delegate, called on the participating states to provide unrestricted access for OSCE PA members to attend official OSCE events and other activities. The document was proposed by Filippo Lombardi, the head of the Swiss delegation, in light of the situation with the Russian delegation when it refused to attend the OSCE PA summer session in Helsinki in July 2015 in protest against the Finnish authorities’ decision to deny entry to lawmakers included in the EU sanctions list, Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin being one of them.
