News and press releases

Strengthening the capacity of police crisis negotiators from across Kazakhstan was the focus of a five-day training course held from 15 to 19 April 2019 in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. The event was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Karaganda...

KYIV, 18 April 2019 – The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and its Working Group on Security Issues convened this afternoon and evening in the videoconference format.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. A woman was reportedly injured due to shelling in Zaitseve. The SMM saw fresh gunfire damage to inhabited houses in Trokhizbenka and Dokuchaievsk. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM observed a weapon in violation of the withdrawal lines near Novoluhanske. It saw fresh craters near Novoluhanske, as well as anti-tank mines near Petrivske and Vesela Hora. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions and observed the restoration of the water supply to Dokuchaievsk following the completion of repairs to the Vasylivka water pumping station. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. It was also restricted near government-controlled Kamianka and in non-government-controlled areas, including at checkpoints near Bezimenne and Verkhnoshyrokivske and at border crossing points near Izvaryne and Sievernyi.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russian Federation, 18 April 2019 – The evolving nature of the threat posed by terrorists and violent extremists requires enhancing co-operation at all levels, including between parliamentarians, said Chair of the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT) Makis Voridis (Greece) at today’s opening plenary session of the International Conference on Counter-Terrorism in St. Petersburg...

Lobbying against corruption was the topic of a training event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Mission to Serbia from 16 to 18 April in Belgrade. The event gathered 52 participants (36 women and 16 men) from the Serbian Anti-Corruption Agency, the Embassy of the United States and civil society organizations...

VIENNA, 18 April 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, condemned the intimidation and threats against TV21 journalists in the municipality of Aracinovo, in North Macedonia...

As part of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro’s ongoing support to municipalities in achieving gender equality, the Mission, in partnership with the Department for Gender Equality within the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, organized three workshops to support the development of local action plans on gender equality in the municipalities of Rožaje, Mojkovac and Cetinje from 10 to 15 April 2019...