News and press releases

The schools of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk – two towns in the East of Ukraine, affected by recent hostilities – received newly-produced awareness raising materials to help their students avoid risks of accidents, associated with unexploded ordnance, abandoned ammunition and other potentially deadly items. At a handover ceremony in Kharkiv on 18 December 2014, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator’s officers presented to the regional authorities 7,000 workbooks with covers displaying instructions on safety rules for kids in case they encounter such munitions...

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in co-operation with the BiH Council of Ministers’ Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Security Policy and the Sarajevo-based Centre for Security Studies concluded a seminar on the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security on Thursday, 18 December 2014 in Sarajevo. The seminar aimed to inform security sector officials and representatives of civil society and media about provisions of the Code of Conduct, which calls for democratic oversight of the security sector...

Representatives of the Albanian Foreign Ministry, Central Election Commission and civil society completed on 18 December 2014 a three-day training course in Tirana on short-term election observation. The course was organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania and follows the successful delivery of a similar training course in July 2014...

While finding that Latvia’s 4 October 2014 parliamentary elections took place in an open and peaceful environment with respect for fundamental freedoms, the final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recommends a review of limitations on the rights of some individuals to run as candidates.

The OSCE Mission to Skopje, through its charitable programme Blossom Fund for Children, donated various teaching materials and technical equipment, books and games to the Dr. Zlatan Sremac Special Primary School in Skopje on 18 December 2014...

Fourteen prominent women representing parliaments, academia, civil society and media from Belgrade and Prishtinë/Priština gathered for the first time in Belgrade on 15 and 16 December 2014 as part of the so-called “Budva Process,” aimed at enabling these women to engage in a direct dialogue...

Some states continue to unduly restrict people’s ability to exercise their right to freedom of peaceful assembly in expressing their views, says a report on the monitoring of assemblies released by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Vienna on 17 December 2014.