News and press releases

OSLO, 1 June 2018 – Global migration, digitalization and the role of women present modern challenges and opportunities to effective and balanced language policies, agreed participants at the close of a high-level conference on language policy and conflict prevention held yesterday in Oslo, marking the 20th anniversary of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities’ (HCNM) Oslo Recommendations...

BELGRADE, 1 June 2018 – The OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia launched today in Belgrade a three-year project entitled Support for Victims and Witnesses of Crime in Serbia...

TASHKENT, 1 June 2018 – The first international roundtable discussion on Uzbekistan’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) against Torture, co-hosted by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the Office of the Authorized Person of the Oliy Majlis for Human Rights (Ombudsman), concluded today in Tashkent...

VIENNA, 1 June 2018 – One year after the illegal detention of Stanislav Aseev, a blogger and contributor to the Ukrainian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today reiterated his urgent call for the journalist’s release...

CHERNIVTSI, 1 June 2018 – The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Madina Jarbussynova, concluded today a four-day visit to Western Ukraine. The trip aimed to raise awareness of human trafficking and the risks encountered by vulnerable groups as a consequence of the current crisis in and around Ukraine...

On 28 May 2018 the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe commenced its annual awareness-raising campaign, Parents against Terrorism, with a series of one-day activities in the local communities of Shaartuz, Qabodiyon, Qushoniyon and Vakhsh in the Khatlon region of Tajikistan....

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, compared with the previous reporting period. Small arms were fired in the direction of an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near Krynychanske. The SMM followed up on reports of a civilian casualty in Holmivskyi. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. It heard an explosion and saw dark grey smoke 200-300m from its position near the Petrivske disengagement area. The Mission’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including near Izvaryne and Dovzhanske at the border with the Russian Federation. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Novotroitske, Mykolaivka and Novoselivka. The Mission’s facilitation of the access of Voda Donbassa water company employees to the Donetsk Filtration Station and of repair works and demining activities in the area, in order to keep the station operational, was interrupted due to ceasefire violations in the area, despite security guarantees. The SMM continued to monitor and facilitate repairs to high-voltage power lines near Yuzhna-Lomuvatka and Almazna and to the Petrivske pumping station near Artema...