Srijeda, 21. studenog 2007.

Izjava Međunarodne helsinške federacije

Na svojoj skupštini održanoj u Helsinkiju od 15. do 18. novembra 2007, Međunarodna helsinška federacija usvojila je sljedeću izjavu (preuzeto sa www.ihf-hr.org):

Statement of the IHF General Assembly on the Current Financial Crisis of the IHF and the Future of the Helsinki Movement

Helsinki, 18 November 2007. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) held its 25th anniversary and General Assembly on 15-18 November 2007 in Helsinki, the city of the 1975 Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. As part of the Assembly, a seminar was held at the Finnish Parliament on "Prospects and Challenges of the Human Rights Movement", with among others Christian Strohal, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, as speaker.

An unexpected challenge to the movement was the Federation’s grave financial crisis. At the end of September it became clear that the IHF had fallen victim to a massive fraud. The former IHF financial manager has been taken in pre-trial custody and two external persons are under investigation. The IHF is short of a significant amount of money affecting its liquidity and will probably have to submit in the near future a request of bankruptcy to the Austrian Commercial Court – the Federation being registered in Vienna.

At the General Assembly, the representatives of the national Helsinki committees vested the Executive Committee with the task to take care of the probable dissolution of the IHF. However, the Assembly stated that the Helsinki movement, which started in 1976, is not dependent on the Federation, as the movement existed before the formation of the Federation. Initiatives were discussed among the members to continue co-operation in the future. A task force composed of some of the interested committees will look into possibilities of developing new forms of co-operation.
The Assembly expressed its satisfaction with the substantive work of the IHF Secretariat, including the valuable reports on human rights in the OSCE region. The challenge to the member committees now is to provide each other with the services offered through the last 25 years by the Federation’s staff in Vienna.

The Assembly unanimously expressed its commitment to the movement and the obligation of its members to continue their work to safeguard human rights in a situation characterized by violations in many OSCE countries, both in the East and in the West. The Helsinki Movement will continue to act as a watchdog for human rights, democracy and the rule of law and as a promoter of civil society in OSCE member states, in co-operation with the relevant international institutions.

The General Assembly Meeting also took the decision to expel the Moldovan Helsinki Committee (MHC) in accordance with its Statutes because the Committee had discredited and damaged the Federation.