On 3 March 2022, 45 participating States of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including Latvia, with support from Ukraine, initiated the establishment of an independent expert mission (Moscow Mechanism) to assess violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has been supported by Belarus.
The OSCE will establish a mission of independent experts who will gather facts regarding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments, violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as clarifying the facts and conditions regarding possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. The information contained in the expert mission’s report will also be used in international courts and tribunals that currently have or may have jurisdiction over these crimes.
The Moscow Mechanism is an OSCE instrument that applies in cases of suspected serious threats to respect for the OSCE’s Human Dimension commitments in one of the OSCE participating States. The mechanism shall take the form of an evidence-gathering mission on the territory of the country concerned, resulting in a report which is discussed in the OSCE Permanent Council.