News and press releases

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/PARIS, 7 December 2021- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, representing the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, express support for the resumption of direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.  The Co-Chair countries call on the sides to continue the dialogue between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan begun at meetings held in New York in September and Paris in November, as well as to continue contacts at the leadership level to promote a lasting and sustainable peace in the region.   

VIENNA, 7 December 2021 – OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid launched the OSCE Networking Platform on Women Leaders including Peacebuilders and Mediators. Around 50 women leaders participated in the online event.

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe organized a roundtable discussion on the analysis of strategic documents concerning the media sector in Tajikistan. The discussion was organized jointly with Public Organization Khoma and took place in Dushanbe on 2 December 2021.

OSCE best practices in improving national legislation to meet the World Trade Organizations’ (WTO) requirements were discussed during an online seminar organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat on 2 and 3 December 2021.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan organized an in-person training-of-trainers, from 28 November to 2 December 2021 in Tashkent, on international standards of human rights and freedoms for defense lawyers from all regions of Uzbekistan. The training course is part of the longstanding efforts of PCUz to reach out to legal professionals and to support the creation of a community of legal experts in Uzbekistan, with knowledge of the most recent developments among international legal experts.

VIENNA / LONDON / NEW YORK, 2 December 2021 – Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Dame Sara Thornton, United Kingdom Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) and Daniel Thelesklaf, Project Director of Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) Initiative at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, issued the following statement after the conclusion of a roundtable on the critical role of the financial sector in combating trafficking in human beings and modern-day slavery:

An OSCE-organized online seminar on mainstreaming the work of the national human rights institutions and the role of an Advisory Council in Turkmenistan took place on 2 December 2021.