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13
CSCE/SEDIO.3
A widely held view among the experts was that one of the most important functions of CSCE co-operation in these fields would be to establish contacts between governments, institutions and
organizations seeking expertise or assistance and counterparts that are in a position to provide such resources. The need to assure co-ordination of activities with a view to strengthening
democratic institutions was underlined.
Participants noted in this context the support that has been expressed for the proposal of transforming the CSCE office for
Free Elections into a broadly focused office of democratic
institutions. Paragraph 30 of the Document of the Moscow Meeting
of the Conference on the Human Dimension was referred to in this
connection.
Participants, while noting that any revision of the mandate of the Office for Free Elections would have to be decided by the appropriate body, expressed views to indicate possible additional functions a CSCE office of democratic institutions could serve.
At this stage, certain experts made the following points:
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an office of democratic institutions could serve as the
institutional framework for sharing and exchanging information on available technical assistance, expertise and national and international programmes aimed at assisting the
new democracies in their institution-building;
it could facilitate contacts between those offering such resources and those wishing to make use of them, thereby serving as a clearing-house and contact point and a facilitator for co-operative projects;
it could establish and maintain a data-base of such resources
and services;
it could establish contacts with non-governmental organizations active in the field of democratic institution- building, with a view to enabling interested participating