News and press releases

ROME / VIENNA, 23 March 2018 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Italy’s Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger condemned today’s terrorist attacks in Carcassonne and Trèbes, France. They offered their heartfelt condolences to the families of victims and wished swift recovery to those wounded...

A team of experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights were in Skopje from 19 to 23 March for a consultation and planning visit as part of the ODIHR project Support to Elections in the Western Balkans. In-depth consultations were held with key stakeholders regarding

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. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including again at a checkpoint near Kreminets and at a heavy weapons holding area.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line, including in residential areas. The SMM continued to facilitate access for workers to and from the Donetsk Filtration Station. The Mission monitored a gathering in Kyiv related to the lifting of immunity of a Member of Parliament and in Lviv it monitored a gathering outside the City Council building.

A specialized training course on use of the Electronic Disclosure Suite (EDS), an electronic database for accessing evidence gathered by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) concluded on 23 March 2018 in Sarajevo. Two two-day training events held in Banja Luka and Sarajevo, gathered some 50 legal associates and investigators from prosecutor’s offices and police investigators who work on war crimes cases from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)...

WARSAW, 23 March 2018 – Wrapping up a two-day visit to Warsaw, where meetings have taken place with colleagues from the Polish Parliament and from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) said today that solving common problems requires greater international co-operation.

Enhancing the knowledge and skills of law enforcement officials from South-Eastern Europe in investigating malicious software (in short malware) was the focus of a OSCE-hosted one-week training course, which concluded on 23 March in Tirana.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the Association of Women in the Kosovo Police organized a three-day train-the-trainer course on trafficking in human beings (THB) for senior female police officers. The course, attended by 25 officers, including lieutenants and sergeants operating in the Directorate for Investigation of THB and other units within the Kosovo Police, was held from 21 to 23 March 2018 in Ohrid, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia...