Exclusion: who decides — and on what grounds? Hizb ut-Tahrir and the HDIM Edwin Bakker 1 Introduction In 2006, the British wing of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic for ‘Party of Liberation’) registered to attend the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, organized by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. However, following objections from certain participating states the Belgian Chairmanship decided to exclude the NGO from the meeting. The delegation of the British Hizb ut-Tahrir, according to their press statement, had wanted to update participants on the deteriorating situation in Central Asia, ‘where peaceful political dissent has become a justification for torture, arbitrary detention and even extrajudicial killing.’ 2 In this part of the OSCE area, governments regard Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organisation and have jailed hundreds of its (suspected) members and sympathisers. Reportedly, these countries and the Russian Federation sent their complaints about Hizb ut- Tahrir’s registration to the then Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council and head of the permanent delegation of Belgium to the OSCE, Ambassador Bertrand de Crombrugghe. 3 Without giving any details on the case, he decided to exclude Hizb ut-Tahrir from the HDIM. After a short overview of the criteria for access to the HDIM and the characteristics of the party in question, this article focuses on this decision and its wider implications. Against that background, it aims to answer the following basic question regarding the exclusion of NGOs from OSCE human dimension meetings: ‘who decides — and on what grounds?’ Access to the HDIM NGO access to human dimension meetings is addressed, inter alia, in the 1992 Helsinki Summit Document, ‘The Challenges of Change’ under Chapter IV ‘Relations with international organizations, relations with non-participating states, role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)’. 4 This document states, 1 Edwin Bakker is Head of the Security and Conflict Programme of the Clingendael Institute, The Hague. The author would like to thank Koen van Lieshout, Erik Schlager, Aaron Rhodes and Rob Zaagman for their valuable comments. 2 Hizb ut-Tahrir, press statement, 5 October 2006, ‘OSCE bows to pressure from Central Asian dictators by excluding Hizb ut-Tahrir from Warsaw meeting’. Available at < http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/press-centre/press-release/osce-bows-to-pressure-from-central- asian-dictators-by-excluding-hizb-ut-tahrir-from-warsaw-meeting.html>. 3 See The 2006 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Report of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Washington 2007, pp. 3-4. 4 CSCE Helsinki Document 1992. ‘The challenges of change’, pp. 25-27.