News and press releases

VIENNA, 15 May 2018 – Welcoming the entering into force of Malta’s new Media and Defamation Act, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM), Harlem Désir, called on the authorities to engage in further legal and policy reforms on civil defamation legislation...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations inside the Petrivske and near the Zolote disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted there and elsewhere, including in Donske and Izvaryne. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The Mission continued to facilitate access to the Donetsk Filtration Station for Voda Donbassa water company employees in order to keep the station operational; it heard ceasefire violations in the area despite security guarantees. The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to high-voltage power lines near Almazna and to the Petrivske pumping station near Artema. In Berehove, the Mission followed up further on reports of damage to nine cars with Hungarian licence plates. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored two marches: one on the occasion of Mother’s Day and the second one on affordable housing programmes for internally displaced persons and ATO veterans...

Trial monitoring and fair trial rights were the focus of a two-day training event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Skopje, on 14 and 15 May 2018 in Skopje. The trainees – 18 women and five men – were

KYIV, 15 May 2018 – Following meetings with governmental and parliamentary leaders in Kyiv, a high-level delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly led by President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) stressed the need for a UN peace-keeping mission to help end the fighting in eastern Ukraine and to make full implementation of the Minsk Agreements possible. In meetings, the delegation also addressed the humanitarian consequences of the armed conflict in Donbas and urged OSCE participating States to prioritize assisting the country in its efforts to ease the plight of the up to two million internally displaced persons...

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons decreased at both BCPs. On 8 May 2018 the seventy-fourth Russian convoy of 16 vehicles crossed into Ukraine and returned back to the Russian Federation through the Donetsk Border Crossing Point...

PARIS, 15 May 2018 – The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America), together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, met with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov on 15 May.

Good practices for maintaining the functional independence of prosecutors investigating high-profile cases were the focus of a study visit to Oslo by a group of prosecutors from Eastern European countries. The two-day visit organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights