Any improvement in the comprehensive security of an OSCE participating State results in greater security for all, said OSCE Chairperson and Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić in Belgrade while opening today's Chairmanship conference on Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R), which is one of the Serbian Chairmanship's priorities.

Dačić noted that a well-organized security sector is an important element of good governance. "OSCE structures, institutions and missions in the field play an important role in shaping a long-term sustainable security sector in many participating States," said Dačić.

"I believe that the OSCE, through its comprehensive approach, can contribute to the issues concerning security sector governance and reform," said Dačić. "It is a continuous, demanding process, aimed at establishing and developing democratic and sustainable structures, capable of efficiently dealing with the current security challenges at the national, regional and international levels."

Marcel Pesko, Director of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General, said: "The objective of our endeavours is not to re-invent the wheel or to introduce a new and separate discipline within the OSCE. Rather, we would like to use SSG/R as a framework that helps us to put our efforts into a broader context. This is based on the understanding that our individual activities in the security sector are interlinked and their success is mutually dependent."

Some 200 participants representing senior officials from Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Interior, OSCE delegations, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and staff of the OSCE executive structures, as well as representatives from the security sector, national parliaments, academia and civil society, will discuss strategies for comprehensive support to Security Sector Reform processes with an OSCE-wide perspective.



Photo by:OSCE/Micky Kroell