News and press releases

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The SMM saw fresh damage caused by gunfire to houses in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote and Petrivske disengagement areas. The SMM observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines near Khrustalnyi, in a non-government-controlled area of Luhansk region. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of essential civilian infrastructure in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere. The Mission was also restricted at a checkpoint near Verkhnoshyrokivske in a non-government-controlled area of southern Donetsk region, as well as at a railway station in Voznesenivka and at a border crossing point near Voznesenivka in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region...

VIENNA, 17 April 2019 – Following reports about the recent arrest of several citizen journalists in Crimea, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today condemned the continued deterioration of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists on the peninsula...

Addressing hate crimes and other violations of the human rights of migrants at borders in South-Eastern Europe, including abuses motivated by racism and xenophobia, was the topic of discussion at an expert meeting in Zagreb on 16 and 17 April 2019. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organized the event in co-operation with the Office of the Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia.

ASHGABAT, 17 April 2019 – Some 200 representatives of Central Asian and other OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation, as well as experts from international organizations, attended today in Ashgabat an OSCE high-level regional conference on countering terrorist financing and organized crime...

ASHGABAT, 17 April 2019 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on Central Asia, Austrian parliamentarian Roman Haider, is in Turkmenistan this week, where he has attended the OSCE Regional Meeting of Heads of OSCE Field Operations in Central Asia and a conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the opening of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat. He has also met with Turkmen officials and members of the international community...

A two-day training course on trafficking in human beings (THB) and migration for judges and prosecutors from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) started today, 17 April 2019, in Teslic...

ASHGABAT, 17 April 2019 – An OSCE-organized conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat took place yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat...