News and press releases

ERGNETI, 1 November 2023 – The 115th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) took place in Ergneti today under the co-facilitation of the Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), Dimitrios Karabalis, and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, Viorel Moşanu.

On 27 October 2023, nineteen mine action specialists and practitioners (18 men, 1 woman) from the military, law enforcement, security services, and humanitarian agencies of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Serbia completed a three-week regional Explosive Ordnance Disposal course (EOD Level 2) at the Regional Explosive Hazards Training Centre of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence in Chimteppa.

Excessive use of detention on remand is a global issue that poses rule of law and human rights concerns, and Kosovo faces similar challenges.

On 23 October, in Tashkent, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) – together with the National Human Rights Centre, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its Regional Office for Central Asia, the United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan and the Office in Uzbekistan of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation – organized an International Forum titled: "Youth Rights: Possibilities and Mechanisms of Protection". The Forum commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.

From 16 to 20 October 2023, the OSCE delivered a national training course on gender-responsive policing of violence against women and girls in Popova Šapka. The course – organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD), the OSCE Mission to Skopje, and the Police Training Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in North Macedonia – was delivered by the six national police officers and prosecutors who had previously benefited from the TNTD’s train-the-trainers course in Warsaw. Twenty-two police officers and prosecutors from various municipalities in North Macedonia- twelve women and ten men – learned to respond to cases of violence against women and girls while maintaining a victim-centred approach.

VIENNA, 23 October 2023 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, concluded a two-day official visit to London. During her visit, she engaged in a series of productive meetings with various stakeholders, including Sir John Whittingdale, Minister of State for the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, Lord Christopher Bellamy KC, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, Christian Rogg, Director for Development and Open Societies, and members of Parliament, including Vice Chairs of All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Media Freedom issues. The primary focus of these discussions was to address both current and emerging challenges to media freedom across the OSCE region, including discussions on the situation in the United Kingdom.

VIENNA, 18 October 2023 — A new report mapping the online landscape of risks of trafficking in human beings on sexual services websites across the OSCE was launched by the Office of the Special Representative and Co-Ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings to mark EU Anti-Trafficking Day.