News and press releases

VIENNA, 3 March 2017 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today called on Georgian authorities to ensure media independence and pluralism following a Supreme Court ruling ordering a change of ownership of the Rustavi 2 television channel...

The OSCE Office in Tajikistan and the OSCE-supported Women’s Resource Centres (WRCs) signed the new implementing partner agreement on 3 March 2017 to launch project implementation for 2017. The signing ceremony was held in the premises of the Balkhi Women Resource Centre, Khatlon region...

The first in a series of OSCE-supported five-day training courses on profiling at the border checkpoints to assist in countering transnational threats concluded in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 3 March 2017...

Some 70 officials from central and local customs authorities in Kazakhstan and members of the Chamber of Commerce and business community were trained on a system which allows entities to temporarily import goods into a country during a workshop supported by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana on 2 and 3 March 2017...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including more than twice as many explosions compared with the previous reporting period. It observed damage from shelling on both sides of the contact line. The SMM monitored adherence to the ceasefire and facilitated dialogue in order to repair essential infrastructure in the area of Svitlodarsk. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas in Stanytsia Luhanska, Petrivske and Zolote but its access remained restricted.* The Mission heard artillery explosions and heavy-machine-gun fire inside and near the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM camera in Stanytsia Luhanska revealed five ceasefire violations inside the disengagement area on 27 February. The SMM noted unexploded ordnance in Lyman, Shchastia, Kalynove and near Donetsk airport. The Mission monitored the blockade of routes crossing the contact line in four locations. It visited a border area not under government control...

On 2 March 2017, the 75th meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held in Ergneti. Kestutis Jankauskas, Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) and Ambassador Guenther Baechler, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, co-facilitated the proceedings...

VIENNA, 2 March 2017 – Statelessness, a human rights and security issue affecting hundreds of thousands of people across the OSCE region according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is the focus of a new handbook of international standards and good practices launched in Vienna today by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the UNHCR...