News and press releases

VIENNA, 7 December 2017 – The OSCE and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed today in Vienna to deepen their co-operation and establish a strategic partnership to promote good governance, connectivity and economic development...

VIENNA, 7 December 2017- The OSCE, now more than ever, is indispensable for security in Europe, said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at the opening of the 24th Ministerial Council today in Vienna. He reminded the foreign ministers, state secretaries and high-level officials from the OSCE’s 57 participating States and 11 Partners for Co-operation that the security challenges facing the region can only be solved by consensus and overcoming the current crisis in confidence between states...

An OSCE-supported training seminar on gender mainstreaming the work of local governments concluded in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan, on 5 December 2017.

VIENNA, 6 December 2017 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz today received civil society’s recommendations to the OSCE executive structures and participating States, on the eve of the 24th OSCE Ministerial Council. The recommendations were adopted by more than 100 NGO representatives who met during the Parallel Civil Society Conference, which was organized by the Civic Solidarity Platform, a coalition of NGOs from across the OSCE region, in Vienna on 5 and 6 December...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including over 1,300 explosions, compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Petrivske disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Sosnivske and Mykolaivka.* The SMM followed up on reports of a civilian casualty in the Trudivski area of Donetsk city’s Petrovskyi district and observed damage caused by shelling in residential areas in Vrubivka, Novotoshkivske and Pervomaisk. The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM observed an unexploded mortar round placed on a roadway near Nova Marivka. The Mission visited two border areas not under government control. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored a protest in support of an opposition politician....

VIENNA, 6 December 2017 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today welcomed that, following a series of arrests earlier this week, three people have now been charged with murder in the case of the car explosion that killed the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta on 16 October 2017.

Effective and human rights-compliant policing in Roma and Sinti communities was the focus of a two-day training course for 20 senior Polish police officers organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Krakow, Poland, in co-operation with the Regional Police Headquarters, on 5 and 6 December 2017.