News and press releases

The Border Security and Management Unit of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department held meetings with North Macedonia’s Minister of Interior Oliver Spasovski and his Task Force on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Public Key Directory (ICAO PKD), from 21 to 22 March 2019 in Skopje...

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. The SMM observed military presence in the Petrivske disengagement area and again saw anti-tank mines and military presence in the Zolote disengagement area. It facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk regions including repairs to the wooden ramps in the broken section of the Stanytsia Luhanska bridge. The Mission facilitated and monitored a transfer of persons convicted before the conflict from non-government- to government-controlled areas in Luhansk region. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and at a checkpoint of the armed formations near Zaichenko, Donetsk region...

International rule of law standards for the individualization of criminal responsibility were the topic of a seminar organized on 21 March 2019 in Minsk for participants from across Belarus.

Innovative methods for researching unreported hate crimes and hate incidents were the focus of a training session for criminal justice and human rights professionals organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 20 and 21 March 2019 in Warsaw.

SARAJEVO, 21 March 2019 – An assessment of the work of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) institutions in combating discrimination, prepared by the OSCE Mission to BiH, was presented today in Sarajevo, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination...

VIENNA/STRASBOURG/WARSAW, 21 March 2019 – Too many people with an ethnic or migrant background are still being held back in the job market. This is despite laws against racial discrimination and for equal opportunities in employment that have been in place for decades, the heads of three European human rights institutions said in a joint statement on today’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination...

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Mission followed up on the explosion of a device in Luhansk city. The SMM recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The Mission observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM spotted for the first time anti-tank mines near government-controlled Novoselivka. The Mission continued to observe hardship faced by civilians at checkpoints along the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including at a permanent storage site and a heavy weapons holding area in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region and near non-government-controlled Verkhnoshyrokivske. In Kyiv, the SMM followed up on reports of arson at two stores.