News and press releases

On 8 May, ODIHR and Transparency International (TI) launched a platform bringing together international organizations, civil society and academia to combat political corruption by building a shared awareness of the concept and its practice, and at the same time increasing the ability of TI offices across the OSCE region to analyse, monitor, and investigate real and potential cases.

The OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights supported a three-day training course for local prosecutors on Kyrgyzstan's new criminal justice legislation. The event was organized by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Kyrgyz Republic and held from 6 to 8 May 2019 in Bishkek. This is the first round of training for staff of Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office. Similar training courses will be conducted in all regions of Kyrgyzstan throughout the year.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. It recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM saw for the first time anti-tank mines near Bila Kamianka and Starohnativka. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to civilian infrastructure and damaged houses. It also continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station and monitor the security situation around the pumping station near Vasylivka. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas...

PODGORICA/CETINJE, 7-9 May 2019 – To further strengthen Montenegro’s capacities in creating a digital cultural property database, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro with the support of the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) organized a three-day workshop on best practices in protecting cultural heritage from traffickers in cultural property from 7 to 9 May 2019 in Podgorica and Cetinje...

The OSCE-recommended model of intelligence-led policing (ILP) and its advantages for contemporary policing to the Uzbek Police, training workshop organized by the OSCE Secretariat, in co-operation with the OSCE Office of the Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, was held on 10 May 2019 in Tashkent...

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. • The Mission observed fresh damage caused by shelling to residential houses in Marinka. • It recorded the presence of military hardware inside the Zolote disengagement area. • The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas. • The Mission continued to monitor the situation of civilians crossing the contact line. • The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to civilian infrastructure and damaged houses. It also continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station and monitor the security situation around the pumping station near Vasylivka. • Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The SMM was also restricted at a checkpoint of the armed formations near Novoazovsk.

Representatives of Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy, the country’s Office of the Prosecutor General, the police and the State Service for Labour Issues visited the OSCE Secretariat and the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior on 7 and 8 May 2019 as part of an OSCE capacity-building project that aims to combat human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants...