News and press releases

Tirana, 15 May 2023 – Albania’s 14 May local elections were generally well-administered, competitive and held with the participation of the country’s key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the two main political parties in the country and deep divisions among the opposition, the international observers said in a statement today. Contestants could campaign freely, but issues of importance for local communities barely featured in the campaigns. Cases of the misuse of public resources at both the national and local levels, allegations of pressure on voters and public sector workers, in particular, and of vote-buying were of concern, the observers said.

On 12 May 2023, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov co-organized an expert meeting in Flensburg, Germany, entitled “Three Decades of HCNM’s Experience in Quiet Diplomacy and Conflict Prevention: Lessons Learned and New Challenges”. This is the first of a series of events to mark 30 years since his office was first opened in The Hague.

A needs assessment to evaluate the fire mitigating measures in Montenegro concluded on 12 May, conducted by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) for the Ministry of Defense and with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro.

VIENNA, 12 May 2023- Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro concluded her visit to the United States of America from 1 – 5 May, where she presented the Joint Declaration on Media Freedom and Democracy and hosted several events on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day in New

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan – together with the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Uzbekistan and experts from the Centre de la Protection Internationale (Centre of International Protection) – organized the training titled “International Mechanisms for the Protection of Human Rights in the UN System”, held from 4 to 9 May in Samarkand. The event aimed to further develop the capacity of lawyers to protect and defend and human rights.

A three-day training course on strengthening North Macedonia’s capacity to implement targeted financial sanction regimes concluded today in Veles, North Macedonia. The training was jointly organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with the support of the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

An OSCE-organized three-day training course on counteracting trafficking in human beings for facilitators from Women’s Resource Centres (WRCs) concluded on 28 April 2023 in Dushanbe.