News and press releases

Bern, April 17, 2014- Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Didier Burkhalter welcomed the outcome of the discussions between the Foreign Ministers of Ukraine, the United States and the Russian Federation as well as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who met today in Geneva.

This update is provided for the media and the public Throughout the day of 14 April 2014, the western and central parts of Ukraine remained calm, with routine police presence, whereas the situation in the south-eastern and eastern regions of the country remained tense. The situation in Donetsk and Luhansk districts continued to cause concerns owing to the observed presence of masked individuals in several towns of the region, occupying several administrative buildings and erecting barricades and roadblocks.

VIENNA, 27 March 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today in a letter to Russian Federation Supreme Court Chair Vyacheslav Lebedev welcomed the court’s decision to reinstate Rosbalt news agency’s certificate of registration as a mass media outlet...

CHISINAU, 27 March 2014 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process Ambassador Radojko Bogojević, concluding his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol today, stressed that developments in the region should not impact the 5+2 talks on the Transdniestrian settlement...

THE HAGUE, 24 March 2014- The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States of America) met separately with President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in The Hague on March 23-24. The Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also attended the meetings.

BERN, 18 March 2014- Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson Didier Burkhalter considers the latest steps, taken today by the Russian Federation regarding the status of Crimea a breach of fundamental OSCE commitments and not compatible with international law. These unilateral actions also contradict the Helsinki Final Act, he said. OSCE countries have committed themselves to a security community where each participating State has an equal right to security and none of the OSCE countries should strengthen its security at the expense of the security of other States, Burkhalter went on...

The acting OSCE Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ruth Freedom Pojman, at a workshop held in Brussels from 12 to 13 March 2014 urged the Organization’s participating States to work jointly to prevent the exploitation of domestic workers by employers who hold diplomatic immunity...