News and press releases

A team of experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) were in Serbia from 29 January to 1 February for a consultation and planning visit within the framework of the ODIHR Support to Elections in the Western Balkans project. The ODIHR team met with senior

VIENNA, 1 February 2018- The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today expressed his concern about a law criminalizing statements on historical events, such as accusations against Poland or Polish people of complicity in crimes committed during the Holocaust or denial of crimes against the Polish population committed by Ukrainian nationalists, such as the Volyn Massacre during World War II...

More than 30 prosecutors and judges from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) attended a training course on trafficking in human beings (THB), which concluded on 1 February 2018 in Sarajevo. The course was organized by the OSCE Mission to BiH, in co-operation with the Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Center of the Federation of BiH.

What strategies are needed to reach gender parity in international and regional organizations like the United Nations and the OSCE? Some fifty delegates of OSCE participating States and OSCE staff members gathered to exchange views on this question at Café Demel in Vienna on 30 January 2018. The event was organized by the Gender Section of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General in co-operation with Norway’s Permanent Delegation to the OSCE.

MINSK, 31 January 2018 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its Working Groups in Minsk on 31 January 2018...

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 near all three. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Donske. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Vidrodzhennia and Bakhmut. The Mission continued to facilitate and monitor repair works to water wells near Krasnyi Lyman. The SMM visited two border areas not under government control. In Chernivtsi, the SMM observed an event commemorating the battle of Kruty...

VIENNA, 31 January 2018- The importance of transparent and reliable military information for countering the deliberate or undeliberate misinterpretation of data on military activities that may heighten tensions between participating States, and even escalate protracted conflicts, was emphasized at today’s OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) meeting in Vienna, held under Slovakia’s Chairmanship...