News and press releases

The SMM saw about 150 armed persons and about 30 vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, in Luhansk city centre, as well as a convoy of military-type armoured vehicles, trucks and armed men near Debaltseve and subsequently near Vesela Tarasivka. The Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas; it recorded ceasefire violations inside the Petrivske disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including near Volnovakha and Kreminets.* The SMM saw weapons in violation on both sides of the contact line. The Mission facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of essential infrastructure in Zalizne, Betmanove, Vesela Hora and Shchastia, and near Troitske, Krasnyi Lyman and Artema. The SMM continued to monitor the situation of civilians travelling across the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge. It visited two border areas not under government control. The SMM monitored gatherings in Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Chernivtsi....

Enhancing the ability to respect human rights while countering terrorism was the aim of a training course organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for 22 officers from the Albanian State Police Counter-Terrorism Directorate in Tirana on 21 and 22 November

Thirty-five education professionals from teacher training institutions across the OSCE region came together in Lisbon on 21 and 22 November 2017 for a meeting focusing on solutions to the challenges faced by teachers when they address intolerance, bias, prejudice, anti-Semitism and related subjects

YEREVAN, 21 November 2017 – The protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the further development of effective measures to counter hate crime are central to preventing discrimination against Christians and members of other religions or beliefs, Armenia’s Foreign Minister and OSCE Officials said today at the official opening of a high-level conference in Yerevan, co-organized by the Austrian 2017 OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) with the support of the Armenian Foreign Ministry...

The SMM recorded a similar number of ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region compared with the previous 24 hours. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas; it recorded ceasefire violations inside the Stanytsia Luhanska and Petrivske disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Siedove near the border with the Russian Federation.* The SMM saw weapons in violation and beyond withdrawal lines in Kalmiuske, and near Buhaivka and Ternove. The SMM facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of essential infrastructure in Zalizne, Shchastia, Vesela Hora, and near Krasnyi Lyman. It visited three border areas not under government control. The SMM monitored a peaceful gathering in Odessa...

COPENHAGEN, 21 November 2017 – Ignacio Sanchez Amor (Spain), Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, expressed concern today over the case of Taner Kiliç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey. Kiliç, accused of being a member of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), is set to go to trial Wednesday...

The OSCE Academy in Bishkek, a well-established regional centre for post-graduate education, capacity building and research, worked closely with the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek in the summer of 2017 to provide additional broad-ranging internship opportunities for its students...