News and press releases

The  final report  by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the 30 September 2018 referendum in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia recommends revising and harmonizing the legal framework to provide clarity to referendum campaign rules, including campaign

Researchers and practitioners from the OSCE region discussed a wide range of analytical perspectives in the study of political parties, party systems, elections, representative democracy and closely related areas, and the practical implications of these for democracy-support efforts during a Winter

GENEVA, 18 January 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today met with the Director General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Noel Curran, and EBU experts in Geneva to discuss political and public support for public service media across the OSCE region, highlighting the important role they can play in strengthening democracy...

Latvia’s 6 October 2018 parliamentary elections were administered in a professional and efficient manner with a high level of confidence among stakeholders, concludes the final report issued by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 17 January 2019. The report

Identifying and building a regional approach to countering hate crime was the focus of an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Milan Bar Association and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in Milan on 15 January 2019. The discussion

COPENHAGEN, 14 January 2019 – With the persistence of a dangerous climate for journalists in many countries of the OSCE region, the leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, Chair Margareta Kiener Nellen (MP, Switzerland), Vice-Chair Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus), today called for increased attention to the importance of the safety of journalists. Recent developments demonstrate that journalists have been facing increasing repression, intimidation, physical attacks and restrictions on their freedom to work, they said...

VIENNA, 11 January 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, published today a legal review of two laws on the fight against the manipulation of information, which were adopted on 20 November 2018 by the French parliament. The review was shared with the French authorities in November...