News and press releases

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region between the evenings of 20 and 21 July compared with the previous reporting period. Between the evenings of 21 and 22 July, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region compared with the previous 24 hours. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three areas as well as, again, near Zaichenko and Bezimenne in non-government-controlled areas of southern Donetsk region. The SMM observed a weapon in violation of withdrawal lines near Vrubivka. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to critical civilian infrastructure near Nelipivka and Novotoshkivske. In Dnipropetrovsk region, the SMM observed 30 young adults participating in a parade aimed at promoting human rights regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Some 130 representatives from Kazakhstan’s Parliament, central and local government authorities, academia and civil society, as well as experts from both Kazakhstan and Russia, participated in an OSCE-supported international conference on transboundary co-operation in the Zhaiyk (Ural) river basin on 23 July 2018 in Uralsk, Western Kazakhstan...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded a ceasefire violation near the Zolote disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three areas as well as, again, near Verkhnoshyrokivske, Siedove and Bezimenne in non-government-controlled areas of southern Donetsk region. The SMM observed a weapon in violation of withdrawal lines near Korsun. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to critical civilian infrastructure near Nelipivka, Zalizne, Bolotene, Novotoshkivske and Zolote-5. It observed again that the wooden ramps on the broken section of the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge were unstable...

TBILISI, 20 July 2018- The 15th South Caucasus Media Conference, a two-day annual meeting organized by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, concluded yesterday...

Building the capacity of Polish police forces to provide training on effective and human rights-compliant policing in Roma communities was the focus of a course organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the Regional Police Headquarters in Krakow, in Zakopane, Poland from 17 to 20 July 2018.

COPENHAGEN, 20 July 2018 – Following the end of a two-year state of emergency in Turkey earlier this week, the officers of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Chair Margareta Kiener-Nellen (MP, Switzerland), Vice-Chair Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus) issued the following statement:

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. Machine gun rounds were fired in the direction of an SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle in Khrustalnyi. The SMM observed damage to civilian properties in a residential area of Dokuchaievsk. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote and Petrivske disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted in all three areas, as well as in areas of Donetsk region outside government control near Zaichenko and Bezimenne. The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Khrustalnyi. The SMM continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to critical civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Nelipivka, Stanytsia Luhanska, Bolotene, Artema and Novotoshkivske...