News and press releases

Canada Early Federal Election 2021: ODIHR Final Report Canada early federal election 2021: ODIHR election expert team final report Following the 20 September 2021 early federal election in Canada, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has published its election expert

WARSAW, 8 February 2022 – A two-day conference at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews under the auspices of Poland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2022 gathered together OSCE leaders and several hundred online and in-person participants to discuss more effective ways of combating anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and discrimination. The event was preceded by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.

WASHINGTON, D.C., 3 February 2022 – The OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Zbigniew Rau, participated in a congressional hearing with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe today.

Contributing to further transparency of the Parliament of Montenegro and in order to widen its national and international outreach, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro provided conference equipment for simultaneous interpretation on 2 February 2022 in Podgorica.

WARSAW/WASHINGTON, 27 January 2022 – On today’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the OSCE calls for greater efforts to find new forms of remembrance and education in order to fight back harder against anti-Semitism and build peaceful societies free from hate and prejudice.

Siv-Katrine Leirtroe, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, welcomed the commitment by the State Election Commission (SEC) to amend internal rules and procedures to ensure its meetings are public. This has been a long-standing recommendation by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). “This decision will result in greater openness and accountability of the SEC, which is a necessary step in ensuring a transparent election management body,” said Leirtroe, adding that the Mission will be working with the SEC in the coming months to ensure all meetings can be livestreamed. According to the Survey on Public Perceptions and Confidence in Election Management Bodies in Montenegro, commissioned by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and published in November 2021, there was a need to further strengthen the transparency and professionalism of election management bodies. As many as 87.3% of citizens believed that opening sessions to the public would contribute to greater public confidence in the work of the SEC and the election process as a whole.

WARSAW, 11 January 2022 – Two decades after the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in the aftermath of the security challenges following the events of 9/11, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) renews its calls for the camp’s swift closure.