OSCE PA President Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden) was in Iceland this week, meeting Tuesday with parliamentary and governmental leaders for talks on priority issues facing the OSCE region.The Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine featured prominently in discussions, with President Cederfelt and her interlocutors noting the threats posed to the international system by the violations of key international commitments including the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act. Meeting with Speaker of the Althingi Birgir Ármansson and Minister for Foreign Affairs Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, President Cederfelt lauded the active participation of the Icelandic Delegation to the OSCE PA, including the work of Bryndís Haraldsdottir as Special Representative on Arctic Issues from August 2021 to January 2023.

President Cederfelt also met with the Icelandic OSCE PA Delegation, led by Birgir Thórarinsson. They discussed the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the whole OSCE region, including on various aspects of Arctic security. Cederfelt and the delegation had a general discussion on relevant issues to be raised during upcoming OSCE PA meetings, and expressed concern over the sentencing on Monday of Russian political dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

In discussions with Njáll Trausti Friðbertsson, Deputy Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Head of the Icelandic Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the sides discussed the possibility of enhanced co-operation and greater complementarity between the OSCE PA and NATO PA.

Meeting with former Minister for Foreign Affairs and former Director of the OSCE/ODIHR Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Cederfelt discussed the OSCE’s work on election observation and democratic assistance, noting the unique and important role of the organization.

PA Members participate in OSCE Alliance Against Trafficking in Human Beings Conference

The OSCE Conference, “It’s About People: National Leadership to End Human Trafficking,” opened Tuesday in Vienna with two OSCE PA Members participating in person. Ravshanbek Alimov (Uzbekistan) delivered a keynote address, thanking the OSCE, UN and other international organizations for supporting Uzbekistan’s counter-trafficking efforts and underling the productiveness of Uzbekistan-OSCE co-operation on the matter. Gudrun Kugler (Austria) represented the PA at the opening session and on Wednesday Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (Cyprus) joined the conference remotely, speaking about the importance of comprehensive anti-trafficking laws to facilitate a “whole of society” approach at the session on “Anti-trafficking tools – Laws and policies.”

The Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference is an annual gathering of stakeholders from across the OSCE region. Since 2004, the Alliance has supported OSCE participating States in developing a robust, harmonized approach to combating human trafficking.