News and press releases

Belgrade, 17 November 2023- The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election observation mission for the 17 December early parliamentary elections in Serbia, following an official invitation from the national authorities.

WARSAW, 16 November 2023 – Launching its annual Hate Crime Report on today’s International Day for Tolerance, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) emphasized the importance of identifying the underlying bias motives of hate crimes in order to diminish the impact on victims and assist their recovery.

As part of an extrabudgetary initiative aimed at mitigating the risks associated with the illicit movement of small arms, ammunition, and explosives across the State Border of the Kyrgyz Republic, the OSCE is enhancing the institutional capacity of the Border Service of the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic to effectively counter transnational threats.

On 8 and 9 November, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Ministry of Interior organized an international conference in Budva that brought together representatives from the Ministry, Police Directorate, Police Academy and University of Montenegro. Five higher education institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Serbia and Slovenia were invited and presented their educational models in creating an institution that could grant a university degree for police officers.

How do state agencies effectively manage businesses, real estate, securities, and financial instruments seized from organized crime groups? How do they ensure that their value does not depreciate by the end of lengthy court proceedings, and that they do not become a liability to the seizing authority? These are some of the questions tackled during an OSCE-facilitated workshop on the effective management of seized and confiscated criminal assets that took place in Moldova this week.

Representatives of the State Energy Institute of Turkmenistan, State Concerns “Turkmengas” and “Turkmenoil” participated in an OSCE-organized seminar on monitoring and scientific research on the reduction of methane emissions that took place on 6 and 7 November 2023. The two-day online event aimed

Between 30 October and 3 November 2023, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe’s Integrated Cooperation on Explosive Hazards Programme (ICExH) together with the Regional Explosive Hazards Training Centre (REHTC) of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defense organized the first joint field visits to humanitarian demining sites in the Vahdat and Garm regions of Tajikistan.