BOSNIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENCE AND OSCE MISSION TO BOSNIA OPENED TWO-DAY CONFERENCE ON OSCE CODE OF CONDUCT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 3,2007) - The OSCE Code of Conduct Politico-Military Aspects of Security, which builds on and reinforces the principles of security laid out in the Helsinki Final Act, is the focus of a two-day conference that opened yesterday in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo under the joint sponsorship of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and the Bosnian Ministry of Defence.

During the conference experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, and the OSCE Mission itself will present the different dimensions of the Code of Conduct and discuss with the participants those aspects of it reflected in the work of their own organisations.
In remarks to the opening session of the conference, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, Douglas Davidson, explained that The Code of Conduct had a relatively simple but fundamentally important purpose: to provide guiding principles for the democratic political oversight of defence, security and intelligence in the countries of the OSCE. Civilian control of the military – and its related offshoots – constituted “one of the fundamental requirements for any successful, fully democratic system of governance,” Davidson said.

Between 1998 and 2003 the OSCE Mission to Bosnia had organised 19 such Code of Conduct seminars for the personnel of the Bosnian Army.