News and press releases

The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) organized the first “Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia School on Multilingual and Multicultural Education for Integration and Sustainable Development”, in co-operation with the ORLEU National Centre for Professional

VIENNA, 7 December 2017 – OSCE Foreign Ministers and other high-level representatives discussed ways to enhance strategic stability in times of increasing political and military unpredictability at a focused discussion on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna. The exchange built on discussions in the framework of the Structured Dialogue on the current and future security challenges in the OSCE area, a multilateral process launched by the Austrian OSCE Chair earlier this year.

VIENNA, 7 December 2017 – It is in the interest of all participating States to use the OSCE as a security forum to counter violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism and to strengthen co-operation so that we can work together, said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at a side event held on the margins of the 24th OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna today...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations inside the Petrivske disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including at a heavy weapons holding area in a non-government-controlled area of Donetsk region.* The SMM saw shelling damage on a roof of a building in Novooleksandrivka and impact sites in residential areas of Dokuchaievsk. The Mission saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Volnovakha. It facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of essential infrastructure near Zalizne, Vesela Hora, Artema and Zolote. In Kyiv the SMM followed up on the situation around the protest camp outside the Parliament building...

Strengthening the capacity of government officials from Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was the aim of a three-day train-the-trainers course organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) Global Programme against Money Laundering, at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna from 5 to 7 December 2017.

Following his constructive visit to Uzbekistan in November 2017, the OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger signed a Joint Commitment with Uzbekistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gayrat Fazilov in Vienna on 7 December 2017 to jointly implement a road map on enhanced co-operation between the OSCE and the country...

VIENNA, 7 December 2017 – Mainstreaming the Youth, Peace and Security agenda into policy development in the OSCE area and beyond was the focus of a side event organized today on the margins of the 24th OSCE Ministerial Council in Vienna by the Special Representatives of the Austrian Chairmanship-in-Office on Youth and Security...