Civil society: OSCE urges state torturers to 'open dialogue with civil society'

Its quite absurd that the OSCE is urging the 'Stans (the ex-Soviet but still brutal kleptocracy-dictatorships in central Asia) to open dialogue with civil society. These regimes torture including by boiling victims to death. How the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) pretends to discuss open engagement is a Kafka-esque invention that Orwell would have been proud of: "Giving formal legal status to public councils and other consultative bodies will also be on the agenda, as will strengthening mechanisms for financial support of NGOs and the establishment of governmental bodies designed to improve co-operation between governments and civil society. Non-governmental organizations have a vital role to play in the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but to do so, they need an enabling environment with adequate legal and financial frameworks," said Snjezana Bokulic, Head of ODIHR's Human Rights Department.