News and press releases

COPENHAGEN, 29 October – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) issued the following statement today on the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine:..

The OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Issues, Ambassador Miroslava Beham, attended the UN Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security on 28 October where she presented an outline of the OSCE activities on UNSCR 1325 ranging from supporting OSCE participating States in their implementation of National Action Plans, through to gender-enhanced mediation support...

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions remained tense. Shelling resumed in the Mariupol area. The NGO “Territorial Defence” in Ivano-Frankivsk is prepared to protect the region from possible military and terrorist threats.

BRATISLAVA, 28 October 2014- Government authorities and non-profit organizations need to engage in regular dialogue on the basis of mutual trust to ensure non-profit organizations are not abused by terrorists or operate as fronts for the financing of terrorism, said participants of a three-day regional workshop which opened today in the Slovak capital...

VIENNA, 28 October 2014 – “Challenges facing us are too big for any single country or region to tackle them alone. Co-operation and common action are an absolute necessity”, said OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier at the 20th Annual OSCE Mediterranean Conference, taking place on 27/28 October in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina...

The OSCE Centre in Astana and the Legislative and Judicial Reform Committee of the Mazhilis (lower chamber of the Parliament) with support of the Penal Reform International Office in Central Asia and Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry co-organized a study visit to Netherlands from 23 to 28 October 2014...

The situation remained calm on Election Day throughout most of Ukraine, including around Shchastya in the Luhansk region, where a local truce seems to have been arranged, and in Donetsk city. A number of frontline villages to the south of Donetsk city were, however, subjected to shelling...