News and press releases

VIENNA, 4 June 2019 – Reducing demand and supply in illicit drugs, curbing their trade via the Darknet, promoting international partnerships, engaging with young people and stepping up rehabilitation and reintegration measures are key to countering the evolving threat of illicit synthetic drugs, said participants of the two-day 2019 OSCE-wide conference that concluded today in Vienna...

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons increased at both BCPs compared to the previous week.

VIENNA, 4 June 2019 – Security is inextricably linked with development, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Nilza de Sena (MP, Portugal) said today at the OSCE’s Security Days event in Vienna. Parliamentarians must push for the full implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), de Sena said, noting that the PA can play an important part in generating the needed political will.

BELGRADE, 4 June 2019 – Only an inclusive, accountable and democratically controlled security sector with full respect for human rights, gender equality and the rule of law can effectively provide security to a state and its citizens, said speakers at a high-level discussion in Belgrade today ahead of a two-day regional meeting organized by the Slovak OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Secretariat on security sector governance and reform (SSG/R)...

VIENNA, 4 June 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, published today a legal review of the Austrian draft Law on Diligence and Responsibility Online. The review was officially sent on 23 May 2019 to the President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, and to the Ministry for the EU, Art, Culture and Media.

Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 31 May and 1 June, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 1 and 2 June, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region compared with the previous 24 hours and no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. A woman was injured by shrapnel in Pikuzy. Residential buildings were damaged by small-arms fire and shrapnel in Chermalyk and Dokuchaievsk. The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The Mission’s freedom of movement was also restricted at a border crossing point outside government control and at a railway station near Voznesenivka, at a checkpoint in government-controlled Bohdanivka, and at checkpoints in non-government-controlled Zaichenko and Novoazovsk. The SMM saw a gathering of members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Chernivtsi...

TIRANA, 3 June 2019 – Visiting Albania, which will chair the OSCE in 2020, this year’s OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák, reiterated today in Tirana Slovakia’s commitment to supporting the country in preparing its 2020 OSCE Chairmanship...