News and press releases
News and press releases from the OSCE's global activities.
OSCE/ODIHR Director calls on Belarus to introduce moratorium on death penalty
Publishing date: 18 February 2016
WARSAW, 18 February 2016 – Today, following the sentencing to death in Minsk of both Sergei Khmelevsky this week and Henadz Yakaritski on 5 January 2016, Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), called on Belarus to introduce an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and its complete abolition...
OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine’s mandate extended by one year to 31 March 2017
Publishing date: 18 February 2016
BERLIN / VIENNA, 18 February 2016 – The mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) was extended today by the OSCE Permanent Council to 31 March 2017, a move welcomed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Secretary General Lamberto Zannier...
OSCE Academy in Bishkek receives new license for Master’s programme
Publishing date: 18 February 2016
BISHKEK, 18 February 2016 – The Kyrgyz Ministry of Education and Science issued a new license for the OSCE Academy’s Master’s Degree programme in Political Science with focus on Central Asia. Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, today presented the license to the Academy’s Director Pal Dunay at the OSCE Centre’s premises...
OSCE PA President strongly condemns Ankara attack
Publishing date: 18 February 2016
COPENHAGEN, 18 February 2016 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) issued the following statement on the 17 February terror attack in Ankara:
OSCE Chairperson Steinmeier and Secretary General Zannier condemn terror attack in Ankara
Publishing date: 18 February 2016
BERLIN / VIENNA, 18 February 2016 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier today condemned in the strongest terms the terror attack perpetrated in Ankara that killed at least 28 people and left more than 60 wounded.
Military logic in eastern Ukraine should be replaced by civilian one, says OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor
Publishing date: 17 February 2016
It is necessary to replace the military logic that still dominates in eastern Ukraine with the civilian one, said Alexander Hug, the Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, after his visits to Marinka, Telmanove and Kominternove on 17 February 2016...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, based on information received as of 19:30hrs, 16 February 2016
Publishing date: 17 February 2016
The SMM observed a significant increase in ceasefire violations from previous days, both in Donetsk and Luhansk region. The Mission continued to monitor the withdrawal of weapons, facilitated and monitored demining and repair works and continued to monitor the humanitarian situation on both sides of the contact line. The SMM encountered one freedom-of-movement restriction. The Mission observed protests in other parts of Ukraine calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister.