Interview with ODIHR’s first Director

Luchino Cortese1991-1994

What was the experience likesetting up the office?It was undoubtedly an extremely interesting ¬- I would say fascinating - experience, although a very hard one: indeed, I had been in the past at the head of some governmental offices, both in Rome and in various Italian Embassies or Consulates abroad, but none of those offices was newly established. In every one of these the entire field of the director’s responsibility was, therefore, well defined and there were very few things to be “invented”, or inventing them was totally forbidden.

2 16

ODIHR’s first Director, Luchino Cortese

Where there specific challenges involved instarting from nothing?Yes, there were, and some of these were extremely difficult ones to address. By far the biggest challenges were linked to two circumstances: First, there was obviously no structure suitable to carrying out the tasks assigned to the Office, nor were the small number of people on staff during the first months specialists in those particular tasks - including myself, of course! Secondly, the cultural framework of the countries in which ODIHR was established and began its activity was somehow “unprepared” and lacked basic instruments and experience for rapidly developing democratic institutions and human rights. In other words, Polish public institutions had to face, on a larger scale, more or less the same problems and challenges as ODHIR had. There was only one way to overcome such a predicament: to help each other as much as possible. This is precisely what we did.

3 16

How did you manage?The answer is very simple: I was lucky, especially in establishing relations with the people I met. From my arrival in Warsaw I concentrated my activities on three targets: I visited the main Polish Authorities (Foreign Ministry, City Hall, etc.) and established very good relationships with competent officials; I did the same with the embassies of all the OSCE participating States in Poland; and I frantically and breathlessly went looking for people who possessed the proper qualities to form the staff of ODIHR. In this, as I said, I was extremely lucky.

4 16

Cortese in front of ODIHR’s first premises

What were the main activities in that first year?In that first year, the only activity of the Office was monitoring elections in OSCE countries: trying to facilitate the exchange of information on elections, as well as monitoring electoral procedures and assisting international observers in national, federal, regional and local elections. Representatives and observers from the Office (including myself) later had the “privilege” of monitoring – among others – the first free elections in Russia. I remember I had the foolish ambition during my stay in Moscow to “be everywhere” and “monitor everything”, with the foreseeable result of falling ill with the strongest pneumonia I ever had.

5 16

How did you determine what activitiesto undertake?Indeed, that was not my duty it was the task of the heads of OSCE. Our job consisted of dealing only with elections. Therefore, during the first year our work was concentrated in the field of election monitoring. These early experiences in such an entirely new field at the time, soon led to the development of a long-term, consistent and systematic election observation methodology, which has become an important contribution of ODIHR.

6 16

ODIHR’s first premises

What changed with the switch from beingthe Office for Free Electionsto the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights?

Following the disintegration of Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the Office’s mandate broadened to include the full range of democracy, human rights and rule of law. Consequently, the name was changed from the Office for Free Elections to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Its main task became assisting the new democracies that emerged in Eastern Europe in their transition processes. This obviously implied the necessity of a rapid and profound growth of the Office’s structure and staff. This, among other things, also meant a substantial increase in the budget. To properly manage these problems all at once was indeed, neither an easy nor a relaxing task and, of course, it took some time. Nevertheless at the end, somehow, we were able to say “mission accomplished!”

7 16

How much did the Office growin the three years you were its headin terms both of staff and of activities´?In those three years the Office to a remarkable extent, not only in size but also as far as the functional and specific capacity of every department was concerned. I remember very well how it was at the beginning. The first days in Warsaw I was alone, and my wife helped me to furnish and equip the Office. After a few days, I hired a young Polish woman: Maria Lukawska. A little later another young woman, Beata Dobrowolska, joined us. For a considerable time, the three of us made up the entire staff. I dare say that these two ladies have since then been the real pillars of the Office, especially during the initial and some of the more difficult periods to follow. Then came the “international officials”, as well as some local employees.

8 16

Cortese in 2011,for ODIHR’s 20th anniversary

How much did the Office growin the three years you were its headin terms both of staff and of activities´?

The first ODIHR Deputy Director was Jack Zetkulic, a young American diplomat whom I had selected in Washington from among several candidates from the United States State Department; he was followed by another very reliable official, Jacek Paliszewski, whom we “borrowed” from the Polish government. Other staff members joined us later, coming both from Poland and from other OSCE countries. I don’t remember how many people were working in the Office when I left in 1994. Their number had certainly been augmented considerably compared to 1991, although it was still far below what it is now (almost 150 staff members from more than 30 countries).

9 16

What would you say is your fondest memoryof those three years here?My fondest memory of those years is the extraordinary feeling among all the members of the staff, which was there from the very beginning and grew rapidly. There was a spirit of friendly co-operation and firm defiance against all obstacles, constantly and strongly focused on achieving the Office’s tasks in the field of human dimension. This showed how much this kind of ethic and human ideals actually influence the concrete behavior of many people in their daily professional activity.

10 16

What are you most proud of about the thingsyou and/or the Office achieved over that time?

To such a “delicate” question, I would have to answer that it was the unexpectedly quick and relatively easy achievement by the entire staff of the very high level of efficiency essential to reaching the targets ODIHR had been given. All of the members of the staff – very limited in number at the beginning – started earnestly and enthusiastically to carry out their difficult tasks with impressive energy and positive results. As a matter of fact, they all did everything, and deserve much more credit for the results than I do. But I was their boss and we were good friends. I still feel very proud of this.

11 16