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II SÉRIE-C — NÚMERO 26

68 — Calls upon the OSCE participating States and pertinent financial institutions to unite their efforts to overcome the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster and prevent technological catastrophes in the OSCE region.

CHAPTER in

Democracy, human rights and humanitarian questions

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly:

69 — Concerned about several present crises and conflicts in the OSCE region which have caused a large number of persons to migrate from the countries of their origin regardless of their, own will and recognizing that this constitutes a serious problem which is of common concern for all OSCE states;

70 — Acknowledging that ar practically no OSCE states with ethnically and culturally homogeneous populations;

71 —Aware that unmanaged .and aggravated relations between different ethnic, religious and cultural sections of a society may destabilise the entire society, cause people to migrate and in extreme cases even break into civil war;

72 — Recognizing that are different reasons for migration, caused by human rights violations, war, civil strife or the quest for better living conditions;

73 — Acknowledging the different nature of categories such as refugees, exiles and immigrants;

74 — Conscious of the danger that internal crises.in one OSCE state may negatively affect that country's international relations, spillover to other countries and cause regional tensions;

75 — Aware that migrants and refugees can become isolated in partially self-sufficient communities, making their integration to the new country of residence problematic and fuelling attitudes of intolerance, racism and xenophobia;

76 — Recalling their common commitment to address t the root causes of involuntary migration as reflected in the

1995 OSCE Parliamentary Assembley Ottawa Declaration;

77 — Taking into account that refugees, exiles and immigrants often strive to settle in a small group of welathier states which, for their part, have better economic and other possibilities to receive them, but who, as a result of decreasing resources and the continuous increase of refugees, exiles and migrants; feel that they need to limit the influx to their territories;

78 — Taking not of the serious problems which hinder refugees, exiles and immigrants from adapting themselves to the new countries of residence, including:

A lack or insufficient knowledge of the language of

the new country of residence; Unemployment and inability to find work; A tendency to settle in homogeneous enclaves, thus

creating «ghettos»; A lack of proper legislation in the recipient country

to take the immigrants needs into account; Economic difficulties in the recipient country; and Sometimes hostile attitudes in the recipient country

towards immigrants, which problems ar often

interrelated and, therefore, need to be tackled

comprehensively;

79 — Stressing the inadmissibility of using national minorities and any problems related to them for exerting political pressure in relations between states;

80 — Taking into account that the problems of returning and settlement on their historic land of persons who suffered mass deportation carried out by totalitarian regimes require special serious attention;

81—Admitting the fact that a precondition for the solution of problems of refugees, displaced persons and immigrants is the speediest and a full-scale settlement of interstate and internal conflicts based upon the principles of international law, after which they may return to places of their former residence;

82 — Welcoming the recente joint initiative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the OSCE to organise a Regional Conference to' address the problems of Refugees, Displaced Persons, Other Forms of Involuntary Displacement and Returnees in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Relevant Neighbouring Countries and the adoption of a Programme of Action on 31 May 1996;

83 — Commending the IOM and the European Union for convening a meeting focusing on the deplorable practice of trafficking in women and girls, which is estimated to involve more than 500 000 victims in Europe;

84 — Aware that this practice extends to hundreds of thousands of additional victims beyond the borders of the OSCE community and that the trafficking in women and girls in the OSCE region is inherently related to the global phenomenon of organized crime relating to slavery, forced labour and forced prostitution;

. 85 — Calls on all OSCE participating States to give more attention to their nationality policies which would meet the requirements of the modern multi-national society development;

86 — Agrees that states not yet having acceded to or ratified the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol should do so and the legislatures should pass such legislation as is necessary for their implementation;

87 — Calls on the OSCE participating States, to agree to ensure that, through the operation of national laws, all persons who were citizens of a predecessor State and are permanently residing on the territory of a successor State, enjoy or are unconditionally granted citizenship;

88 — Stresses the importance of education and training of refugees, exiles and migrants in the language, values, constitution, history, social and professional circumstances of their new state of residence, including special courses for persons with vocational training in order to teach them the vocabulary and local practices in carrying out their profession;

89 — Recommends that the governments of the recipient states offer advisory services on employment and labour markets in the country;

90 — Calls on the governments to organize and promote campaigns for tolerance and against'xenophobia, racism, chauvinism and aggressive nationalism and to encourage the local authorities, NGOs and the media to organize and support such campaigns and education;

91 — Calls upon the governments to pay more attention to the promote of tolerant attitudes towards refugees, exiles and immigrants in the recipient countries;

92 — Suggests further development of international" cooperation and exchange of experience, in particular, in obtaining information and advise from countries with extensive experience in dealing with these matters;