News and press releases

VIENNA, 22 April 2024 – While civil society organizations play a crucial role in monitoring and ensuring accountability for violations of international law in times of crisis, it is becoming increasingly difficult in many places for them to carry out their work effectively or safely, OSCE leaders said as a two-day conference began today.

NEW YORK CITY, 19 April 2024 – The United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe are mutually reinforcing institutions, each playing a complementary role in the pursuit of peace and security, said the OSCE Chair-in-Office and Malta’s Foreign Minister Ian Borg in his address to the UN Security Council.

On 16-18 April, the OSCE Secretariat's Transnational Threats Department, with the support of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo and in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), conducted a training course in Pejë/Peć aimed at enhancing the capacities of local entities in countering the financing of terrorism.

On 19 April 2024, in the context of Tajikistan’s ongoing review under the 5th monitoring round of the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan, the Programme Office in Dushanbe supported the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ACN) monitoring team’s visit to Dushanbe.

The fire protection unit in the Army of Montenegro has been richer for eight firefighting instructors, after an intensive instructors training that took place from 8 to 19 April in Sweden, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

More than 110 experts gathered on 17 April 2024 in an effort to strengthen regional initiatives for combatting illicit trafficking in opiates originating in Afghanistan at the Expert Working Group of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Paris Pact Initiative hosted by the OSCE. The Paris Pact initiative is an international coalition for combatting illicit trafficking in opiates originating in Afghanistan.

From 15 to 18 April, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) conducted a workshop aimed at increasing the capacity of the National Bank of Georgia to spot virtual assets “red flag indicators”. Held in Tbilisi and hosted by the National Bank of Georgia, the workshop aimed to enhance the National Bank of Georgia's ability to regulate VASP activity within the country.