News and press releases

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...

VIENNA, 23 March – Today OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir wrote to the Slovak authorities to express concern about a recently passed verdict on the case of journalist Lukáš Milan...

VIENNA, 22 March 2018- The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today expressed his concern over recent death threats against journalists of the portal Insajderi...