News and press releases

On 28 and 29 September, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) delivered a capacity-building programme on open data for media professionals. The training, which was co-organized with the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and took place at the PCUz office in Tashkent, gathered 23 journalists and bloggers.

In the framework of the OSCE project “Mitigation of Safety and Security Risks related to small arms and light weapons and stockpiles of conventional ammunition in Montenegro”, the Head of the Mission to Montenegro, Dominique Waag, visited Brezovik military facility on 3 October, to see first-hand the results of the support provided by the Mission since 2007.

As part of its ongoing efforts to develop and refine its election observation methodology, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched a new handbook on observing election administration on 3 October 2023, during the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Election

On 30 September, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) concluded a three-month-long, nation-wide small grants programme in Ukraine with the aim of supporting civil society organizations and the private sector in creating digital solutions addressing war-related challenges. The programme, titled Open Data Unbroken, supports the use of open data to encourage civic participation through innovative technology approaches and tools, establish partnerships among various sectors, and enhance information exchange and networking among local authorities, grassroots initiatives, and public activists.

Fifteen officials from the Ministry of Interior are equipped with the knowledge and skills to create and upload training content to the police e-learning platform, developed with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro. This was the outcome of two training cycles the Mission organized this year- from 3 to 7 July and from 25 to 29 September.

The May 2023 local elections in Albania were generally well-administered, competitive and held with the participation of the key political forces, but the process was characterized by continued polarization between the main political parties and deep division within the opposition. Contestants

Türkiye’s 2023 general elections offered voters a choice between genuine political alternatives and voter participation was high, but the incumbent president and the ruling parties enjoyed an unjustified advantage, including through biased media coverage. The continued restrictions on fundamental