OSCE launched the Moscow Mechanism following recommendations from Russian NGOs

The 38 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe activated the Moscow Mechanism for the third time since the beginning of the armed conflict in Ukraine.

What is the Moscow Mechanism

The possibility of launching such a mechanism and its operation were developed by the OSCE participating States in 1991, during the Conference on the Human Dimension held in Moscow - from where the mechanism got its name.

It allows a group of ten or more OSCE participating States to set up a mission of independent experts to investigate a particularly serious threat to the implementation of human rights obligations in one of the participating countries. The mechanism can also be launched on the initiative of the country itself. In coordination with the OSCE, such a mission should establish the relevant facts, prepare a report, and may also provide recommendations on possible solutions.

In the case of Russia, the expert mission will have a mandate to assess whether the country is violating its OSCE human dimension commitments and how the actions of the Russian government affect civil society, freedom of the media, the rule of law, and the ability of democratic processes and institutions to function in the country.

The experts will be appointed for a period of three to six years, and will be able, among other things, to request the opportunity to visit Russia to meet with officials, NGOs and any groups or individuals from whom they wish to obtain information, as well as request information from any Russian NGOs and other actors. In particular, OVD-Info is ready to provide experts with data on anti-war protests, censorship and blocking, criminal and administrative cases, as well as other aspects of human rights violations.

When else was the Moscow mechanism used

The first two cases of application of this mechanism in 2022 made it possible to document violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in Ukraine. Now the mechanism will study the human rights situation in Russia as well.

This procedure is a response both to the unprecedented restriction of human rights in Russia since the outbreak of the war, and to the numerous laws and repressive practices that have developed over the past ten years. All the while, the Russian authorities have suppressed civil society, independent media and political opposition, dissent, as well as peaceful meetings and the work of NGOs.

The last time the Moscow Mechanism was activated against Russia was in 2018, when the country was called upon to investigate human rights violations in Chechnya. It was, among other things, about the systematic persecution of representatives of the LGBT community in the republic. In general, this is only the seventh time since 1991 that the mechanism was launched not on the own initiative of the participating country, but by other countries - in total, the mechanism was activated 11 times.

OVD-Info, together with the Memorial Human Rights Center, spoke about the need to launch such monitoring mechanisms in May 2022 at the Supplementary Meeting on the OSCE Human Dimension. The constant restriction of human rights in Russia, noted by the OSCE, has made war possible, in part because of the insufficient reaction of international institutions to what is happening in Russia. Now such a monitoring mechanism will record what is happening - and what happened - in Russia for the security of the world in the future, and will also become the basis for the reform of existing international mechanisms.