News and press releases

Discussing new standards for detention conditions and the treatment of prisoners, and elaborating on existing and potential new tools for monitoring places of detention were the key objectives of a meeting with representatives of National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) from the OSCE and Council of

Podgorica, 4 October 2017 – Forensic evidence and the application of modern forensic standards in the judiciary were the focus of an OSCE-supported seminar held on 3 and 4 October in Podgorica. Particular emphasis was placed on the treatment of evidence, forensic analytics, explosions, DNA analysis and crime scene investigation.

Local police officers from Mongolia completed a week-long OSCE-supported course on trends and tendencies of organized crime, with a specific focus on trafficking in human beings, which took place from 2 to 6 October 2017 in Ulaanbaatar.

On 3 October 2017, the 81st Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting was held in Ergneti. Ambassador Guenther Baechler, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, and Erik Hoeeg, Acting Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), co-facilitated the meeting.

ANDORRA LA VELLA, 3 October 2017 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 2017 Autumn Meeting, bringing together some 180 parliamentarians from across the OSCE’s 57 participating States, opened today in Andorra with addresses by the OSCE PA President, and the Speaker of Parliament and Prime Minister of Andorra...

Practical measures that can facilitate the participation of persons with disabilities in parliaments and their access to other elected positions were discussed during an event co-organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 3 October 2017 on the margins of

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region compared with the previous 24 hours and no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. The Mission followed up further on reports of civilian casualties in Mariupol and Shchastia. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote, and Petrivske, and recorded a calm situation in all three. Its access remained restricted in the three disengagement areas and in Boikovske. In violation of the withdrawal lines, an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle spotted a tank behind a house in Verkhnoshyrokivske. The SMM visited a heavy weapons permanent storage site; it also observed weapons outside designated storage sites. The Mission facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of the thermal power plant in Shchastia, water pipelines in Zolote, a pumping station near Artema, water wells near Krasnyi Lyman and the railway station in Verkhnotoretske. The Mission visited two border areas not under government control...