News and press releases

WARSAW, 17 December 2021- As the world nears the end of a second year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, we see clearly that its impact has hit the most vulnerable hardest, with many migrants who were already facing challenges to access their basic rights now having greater difficulty in accessing employment, education, housing, and even the right to international protection, said the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on the eve of International Migrants Day.

The 2021 parliamentary elections in Cyprus were governed by the legal framework that generally provided for the conduct of democratic elections; however, the legislation remains overly complex and requires comprehensive review. While the party finance legislation was amended to enhance

A three-day online training course on “Strengthening Capacities of the Service on Countering Illicit Drug Trafficking of the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic in Combating the Spread of Illicit Drugs Facilitated by the Internet” concluded on 15 December 2021 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Four OSCE diplomats received the OSCE’s White Ribbon award for their work promoting gender equality. The awards went to Annika Söder (Sweden), Marina Wyss (Switzerland), Fiel Vanthemsche (Belgium) and Sebastian Gahnström (Finland). The winners were announced in Vienna on 9 December and the awards were handed over at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 16 December 2021.

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Presence in Albania jointly organized the online training course “Implementing Intelligence-Led Policing on Strategic and Operational Levels” on 9 and 10 December.

The OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, in co-operation with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, organised a Young Policy Advisers Course (PolAd) from 22 to 26 November 2021 in Nur-Sultan.

An OSCE-supported online public discussion on "Analysis of the problem of gender inequality in Kazakhstan" was conducted online on 2 December 2021. The event was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan as a part of the international campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” in co-operation with the MediaNet International Centre for Journalism.