News and press releases

The OSCE Border Management Staff College concluded its first course overseas on 26 October 2018. The 22nd Border Management Staff Course for 21 mid- to senior-ranking official representing 15 countries, including Armenia, Australia, Cyprus, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine, was held at the premises of Legione Allievi, a training school of the Italian Financial Police, the Guardia di Finanza in Bari, Italy...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions between the evenings of 26 and 27 October, compared with the previous reporting period. Between the evenings of 27 and 28 October, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous 24 hours. The Mission followed up on its long-range UAV that had gone missing near non-government-controlled Nyzhnokrynske. Small-arms fire was assessed as aimed at an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle near Metalist. The SMM saw weapons in violation of agreed withdrawal lines near Novookhtyrka and Novoaidar. It recorded ceasefire violations assessed as inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as near Zaichenko, Novoazovsk and Yuzhna-Lomuvatka. The SMM monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable demining activities near Nyzhnoteple and Zolote-2/Karbonit and facilitated repairs to damaged houses in Marinka and Krasnohorivka. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored a public gathering in support of election reform...

Conciliation in international law as a means to peacefully resolve disputes between states was the focus of a colloquium held on 11 and 12 October 2018 in Geneva by the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE in co-operation with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies...

VIENNA, 29 October 2018 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today expressed his serious concern over the lasting pre-trial detention of bureau chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, which has been extended twice already since July, and hopes that the upcoming court proceeding will lead to his release on 4 November 2018, when his current detention is scheduled to end.

Montenegro has made substantial progress in the last decade in reducing its stockpiles of arms and ammunition, thereby cutting the risks they pose to citizens and the environment, said the Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro Maryse Daviet as she opened a two-day regional workshop in Podgorica on 29 October 2018 on the deactivation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in line with the international standards...

New challenges and approaches to regional and global security in Central Asia were the focus of an OSCE-supported international conference held in Astana on 26 October 2018...

TBILISI, 29 October 2018 – Georgia’s 28 October presidential election was competitive and professionally administered. Candidates were able to campaign freely and voters had a genuine choice, although there were instances of the misuse of state resources, and the involvement of senior state officials from the ruling party in campaigning was not always in line with the law, the international observers concluded in a preliminary statement released today. A substantial imbalance in donations and excessively high spending limits further contributed to an unlevel playing field, the statement says...