Only Muslim NGOs highlight Gaza genocide as OSCE conference ends

London - As the 2025 OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw - the world's largest regional security intergovernmental organisation with 57 participating states - comes to a close, CAGE International, in partnership with Insan and Perspectives Musulmanes, were the only speaking parties to meaningfully confront the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the broader erosion of civil liberties through counter-terrorism measures across Europe.

Throughout the week, the coalition’s interventions and side events highlighted how European governments are progressively stripping away civil liberties under the guise of security, silencing dissenting voices and deepening the marginalisation of Muslim communities. While the entirety of the conference avoided the mention of Gaza in any capacity, and gave a platform to individuals promoting the Zionist talking points, CAGE International and its partners ensured that it remained at the forefront of discussion. We reminded the OSCE that silence in the face of genocide is complicity.

CAGE International addressed the United Kingdom’s use of counter-terrorism laws to suppress legitimate political activism, including the recent proscription of Palestine Action and the targeting of lawyers who align with the Palestinian’s right to self determination. The intervention exposed how the UK’s counter-terrorism regime, justified as a balance between “security and freedom,” has in practice become a mechanism to criminalise solidarity with Palestine. In response, the UK delegation issued a written statement that failed to engage with these concerns, offering only a deflective reiteration of government talking points.

Former Guantánamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi delivered a moving testimony on the continuing legacy of Guantánamo Bay, describing it as “the blueprint for global systems of detention and torture”, and urging states to confront their ongoing complicity in such abuses.

Speakers Amanj Aziz (Sweden), Elias D’imzalene (France), and Nehal Abdalla (CAGE Austria) expanded on how counter-terrorism and extremism frameworks have been used across Europe to surveil, intimidate, and silence Muslim communities. They emphasised how symbolic gestures of support for Palestine, unaccompanied by meaningful political action, risk normalising ongoing colonial violence.

In their collective statements, the coalition demanded:
- The abolition of repressive counter-terrorism laws and Islamophobia-driven state policies;
- The de-proscription of Palestinian resistance movements and full recognition of the right to self-determination and resistance;
- An immediate end to Western complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

Through our side events “Guantánamo and the Forever Prisoners” and “From Guantánamo to Gaza”, CAGE International and its partners reaffirmed their commitment to defending civil society, challenging the abuses of counter-terrorism powers, and amplifying the voices of those most affected by these policies.

______
ENDS