The OSCE in Ukraine Update: July 2015 to January 2016

Mediation and Negotiation

The Trilateral Contact Group, which meets in Minsk and is made up of representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the OSCE, represented by the Chairperson-in-Office’s Special Representative Martin Sajdik, and its four working groups on political, security, humanitarian and economic issues continued efforts to resolve the crisis in and around Ukraine.  The Trilateral Contact Group and representatives from the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Lugansk People’s Republic" agreed to a renewed ceasefire in eastern Ukraine from 1 September; however, this has come under increasing pressure since November 2015. On 29 September, the Security Working Group reached an agreement on an Addendum to the Minsk Package of Measures, foreseeing the withdrawal of tanks, artillery under 100 mm and mortars up to 120 mm in eastern Ukraine. (The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was agreed by the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine on 12 February 2015.)

OSCE Chairpersons-in-Office German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2016) and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić (2015), OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, as well as President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Ilkka Kanerva, continued to use every opportunity to urge an end to the fighting and the fulfilment of obligations under the Minsk Agreements.

Monitoring

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) continued to monitor the security situation in Ukraine and the withdrawal of weapons as stipulated in the Addendum to the Minsk Package of Measures. It also continued to engage with the population throughout Ukraine to reduce tensions and to issue publically available daily and thematic reports (most recently on access to water and access to justice in conflict-affected areas).

To extend the monitors’ presence near the contact line, where most incidents take place, the SMM established  eight forward patrol bases, five in government-controlled areas – Volnovakha, Krasnoarmiisk, Svitlodarsk (Donetsk region), Novoaidar and Stanytsia Luhanska (Luhansk region) – and three in areas outside of government control – Stakhanov (Luhansk region), Horlivka and Debaltseve (Donetsk region).

Since spring 2015, the SMM facilitated local ceasefires to create safe conditions for repair work to critical gas, water and electricity infrastructure damaged by shelling, most recently to the water pipeline in Krasnyi Lyman in the Luhansk region on 14 January 2016. 

The mandate of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk was extended to 30 April 2016. Observers continued to monitor cross-border movements at the two Russian checkpoints. 

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed an election observation mission to Ukraine to observe the local elections there on 25 October and 15 November 2015.

Rights and Freedoms

In its project activities, ODIHR has emphasized that peace and security are intrinsically linked with justice and co-operation, the advancement of democracy and human rights. In the second half of 2015, around 400 Ukrainian stakeholders benefited from training on human rights monitoring and hate crime, workshops on political party financing, meetings on women’s political participation and seminars on parliamentary ethics. The Office also facilitated dialogue among religious or belief communities, civil society organizations and relevant state bodies in the Vinnitsa and Odessa regions and in Kyiv.

The High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), Astrid Thors, visited western Ukraine in June and south-eastern Ukraine in November. Based on her findings, she put particular emphasis on the need to develop a stronger institutional framework for minority policy and to promote a balanced approach to issues of language and identity, including allowing multiple perspectives of history. In September, the HCNM published jointly with ODIHR the report on their human rights assessment mission on Crimea conducted in July, despite the fact that the HCNM’s repeated calls for access to Crimea have not been accommodated.   

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, continues to closely monitor the situation regarding media freedom and safety of journalists in Ukraine, which remains worrisome. To build confidence and promote reconciliation, her office continues to host a series of roundtable discussions on journalists’ safety with representatives of Ukrainian and Russian journalists’ unions. These efforts were broadened with the launch of a project for young journalists from the two countries to work together and jointly address the challenges faced by media members in the current political climate.

The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Madina Jarbussynova, visited Ukraine to alert to the heightened risk of human trafficking during the crisis. In November, her office organized a training course on domestic violence in conflict situations and human trafficking due in Dnipropetrovsk, which has seen a large influx of internally displaced persons. This follows on activities in April and May to mobilize efforts against modern slavery in crisis situations in Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkiv that included training sessions for the monitors.

Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) continued to implement projects in direct and indirect response to the crisis. Under its multi-year project to facilitate a broad dialogue on the country’s constitutional and societal reform process, it held discussion forums in Krasnoarmiysk on 30 July and Severodonetsk on 24 September.

Together with the OSCE Secretariat, the PCU launched a training project in July to assist state emergency personnel in clearing life-threatening explosive munitions left in eastern Ukraine as a result of hostilities. In four regions of the country, it provided equipment and training for the introduction of an information management system for mine action (IMSMA), most recently in Kharkiv oblast in December.

For judges working in administrative courts relocated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the PCU, together with the Higher Administrative Court in Kramatorsk, organized a seminar on 3 December dealing with the application of case law of the European Court of Human Rights.