News and press releases

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in partnership with the Montenegrin Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and the Department for Gender Equality, organized three training modules for gender equality focal points from seven Montenegrin municipalities to enhance their skills as trainers on gender equality in Podgorica...

SARAJEVO, 17 June 2019 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with the support of the European Union (EU), presented today in Sarajevo a spot report War Crimes Management at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina...

The OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek organized a five-day training seminar for 20 customs officers from all regions of Kyrgyzstan introducing them to effective ways of tracking illicit drug trafficking, cybercrime, and legalization of criminal proceeds. The event was held at the Regional Training Centre of the World Customs Organization in Kyrgyzstan and concluded on 14 June 2019 in Bishkek.

A five-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was organized in Burabay, Kazakhstan, from 11 to 15 June 2019. The training seminar was delivered to participants from the capital and from the country’s Akmola, Aktobe and Karaganda regions.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. The SMM saw damage to a functioning school and to a shop in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka, to a house in Dokuchaievsk and to two apartments in a residential building in Yasne. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote disengagement areas. The SMM monitored a protest against the lack of running water in Kostiantynivka. It spotted military trucks travelling back and forth between a railway station and a warehouse in non-government-controlled Sukhodilsk near the border with the Russian Federation. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in non-government-controlled areas at checkpoints near Verkhnoshyrokivske and in Prymorske and Sosnivske.

ISTANBUL, 14 June 2019- Concluding his four-day official visit to Turkey, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today called on the Turkish authorities to urgently address and reverse current media freedom violations and pressure that journalists face.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM saw damage from shelling to two residential properties and fresh craters in Nova Marivka, as well as damage to a house in Travneve and craters near a gas pipeline near Novoluhanske. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations and observed an extended trench inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM saw a surface-to-air missile system in violation of withdrawal lines in Khreshchatytske. It saw pieces of unexploded ordnance for the first time in Popasna and Hruzko-Lomivka. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere.