WARSAW, 22 September 2009 - Representatives of governments and civil society from the 56 OSCE participating States will gather in Warsaw on Monday to begin a two-week meeting that will review the progress made in implementing the commitments adopted by governments in the field of human rights and democracy.

Some 1000 participants from across the OSCE region are expected to attend the "Human Dimension Implementation Meeting", Europe's largest human rights conference.

Former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski will deliver a key-note address to open the conference, organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

The meeting scrutinizes achievements made by participating States in honouring their human rights commitments, including in areas such as freedom of assembly and other fundamental freedoms, democratic elections, prevention of torture, the rule of law, and tolerance and non-discrimination.

This year's meeting will feature special sessions on freedom of expression and free media, early education for Roma and Sinti children, and human rights education.

The conference will play an important role in setting the OSCE's human rights agenda ahead of the Ministerial Council meeting in Athens in December and Kazakhstan's forthcoming chairmanship of the Organization in 2010.

The meeting is unique in that civil society groups have full access to working sessions and can discuss challenges with government representatives on an equal footing.

On the margins of the meeting, more than 50 side events organized by governments, civil society groups and OSCE institutions and missions, will highlight specific topics of concern and country situations.

Senior OSCE representatives, including the OSCE's top human rights representative, ODIHR Director Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, and the OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, will take part in the opening session.

Journalists are invited to attend the opening session, which will begin at 10:00 on Monday, 28 September, in Hotel Victoria, ul. Krolewska, Warsaw, as well as all regular working sessions and side events.

The agenda, daily updates, interviews with participants and short summaries of events in English and Russian as well as other information will be available on the conference website: www.osce.org/conferences/hdim_2009.html

Source: http://www.osce.org/odihr/item_1_39643.html