§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will list the occasions on which the Moscow Mechanism of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe has been invoked against a member state, and whether they will propose to other CSCE states that non-governmental organisa-tions accredited to the Economic and Social Committee of the United Nations be allowed to state a case for the use of the mechanism, and for the state concerned to reply, before a Committee of CSCE member states appointed for the purpose.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallascyThe human dimension mechanism, also known as the Moscow Mechanism, has been activated five times: in August by the 15th meeting of the CSCE Committee of Senior Officials to investigate the humanitarian and human rights situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina; in September 1992 by the European Community and the United States in respect of Croatia; in September 1992 by Estonia to study Estonian legislation and compare it to the universally accepted human rights norms; in February 1993 by Moldova to investigate current legislation and minorities' rights in Moldova; in April by the CSCE Committee of Senior Officials to investigate reports of human rights violations in Serbia Montenegro.
We do not intend to propose that non-governmental organisations should have a role in activating the mechanism. We fully support the decision of the CSCE Rome Council of Ministers allowing non-governmental organisations to communicate issues of concern to the CSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which is able to use such information to assist the CSCE decision-making bodies.