News and press releases

MINSK, 2 March 2018 – The Trilateral Contact Group and the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions today issued the following statement calling for a ceasefire:

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with more explosions in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission observed fresh damage caused by shelling to civilian residences in Dokuchaievsk. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. Its access remained restricted in Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote and elsewhere, including, once again, at a border area with the Russian Federation in Luhansk region.* In areas outside of government control, the SMM observed heavy weapons as missing from permanent storage sites. The Mission visited four border areas not under government control. In Uzhhorod, the Mission continued to follow up on reports of an explosion at the building where the office of the Zakarpattia Hungarian Union is located. The SMM observed a vandalized monument in Kherson. The SMM observed a gathering near the Parliament building in Kyiv...

Strengthening the ability of civil society to identify and report hate crimes, and to better support the victims of these crimes, was at the centre of two training workshops organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) this week in Bishkek and Almaty. The

The final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the 28 October 2017 early parliamentary elections in Iceland recommends measures to ensure greater legal certainty and coherence in areas such as candidate registration and voting procedures, as well as to

BRATISLAVA, 2 March 2018 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today welcomed the news that journalist Yusuf Ruzimurodov, who has spent 19 years in jail, has been released.

BRATISLAVA, 2 March 2018 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, travelled today to Bratislava to meet with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico as well as with Slovak journalists and to pay tribute to the murdered journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée.

Enhancing the knowledge and skills of criminal justice practitioners from South-Eastern Europe in live data forensics was the focus of a one-week training course hosted by the OSCE from 26 February to 2 March 2018 at the Albanian Security Academy in Tirana.