News and press releases

An OSCE-supported public consultation meeting on the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under the Espoo Convention Protocol in Kazakhstan concluded on 6 March, 2018 in Astana...

BUDAPEST, 6 March 2018 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened its limited election observation mission for the 8 April parliamentary elections in Hungary. The mission’s deployment follows an official invitation from the Hungarian authorities...

BELGRADE, 6 March 2018 – Green economy and resource efficiency were the focus of a national workshop organized jointly by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) on 5 and 6 March in Belgrade...

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the Co-ordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIC), in co-operation with the Embassy of Italy in Sarajevo acting within the framework of Italy’s 2018 OSCE Chairmanship, launched an anti-corruption project on 5 March 2018 in Sarajevo, to be implemented during the first half of 2018...

On 5 March at 12:55, when an SMM patrol consisting of six members and two armoured vehicles was heading from west to east on a road in Kozatske (non-government-controlled, 36km north-east of Mariupol), it saw a man in military-type attire armed with an assault rifle (AK-74) standing at a checkpoint of the armed formations on the eastern edge of the village. The SMM also saw him pointing the assault rifle directly at the first SMM vehicle, which was then about 120m west of the checkpoint...

The OSCE shared its experiences of how it worked to prepare ground-breaking confidence-building measures to promote peaceful relations in cyberspace at the first meeting of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) working group on co-operation and confidence-building measures (CBMs) in cyberspace in Washington DC on 2 March 2018...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region between the evenings of 2 and 3 March compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region between the evenings of 3 and 4 March compared with the previous 24 hours. The SMM observed damage to a civilian property in a residential area in Pikuzy. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations assessed as inside the Stanytsia Luhanska area. Its access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere, including in Izvaryne near the border with the Russian Federation and in Staromarivka. The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to the Petrivske pumping station in Artema and to a water pipe system in Novotoshkivske. The Mission visited four border areas not under government control. In Kyiv, the SMM observed the tents on Hrushevskoho Street being dismantled and monitored a gathering...