News and press releases

KAMENSK-SHAKHTINSKIY, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons increased at both BCPs compared to the previous week.

Strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was the aim of a two-day train-the-trainers course held at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna on 22 and 23 July 2019. The event was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Programme against Money Laundering.

MARIUPOL, 23 July 2019 – Following up on their report of 8 July 2019, the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus) and former chair Margareta Kiener Nellen (MP, Switzerland) held a series of meetings yesterday in Mariupol related to the humanitarian situation in the heavily conflict impacted region of southeast Ukraine...

VIENNA, 23 July 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, sent to the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, a legal review on the amendments to the Law on Audiovisual Media in Albania, the Law on Electronic Communications, and other relevant provisions regarding the regulation of certain types of content provided through the internet...

The use of digital tools and platforms for promoting content to the general public is the topic of a five-day training course for employees of the Institution of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro and the Agency for Electronic Media, which began on 22 July 2019 in Podgorica. The course is organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro...

Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 19 and 20 July, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and in Luhansk regions. Between the evenings of 20 and 21 July, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region compared with the previous 24 hours. Following the beginning of a recommitment to the ceasefire at 00:01 on 21 July, in connection with the agreement reached at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on 17 July, the SMM recorded 79 ceasefire violations, including six explosions. A man died in a garden in Krasnohorivka due to gunfire. A woman died and several people, including a child, suffered shrapnel injuries in Pervomaisk. The Mission observed fresh gunfire damage to a garden in Krasnohorivka, to residential houses in Chermalyk, and fresh damage due to shelling to houses in Pervomaisk. Inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area, the SMM continued to monitor the operation of a shuttle bus service in government-controlled areas, north of the bridge. The Mission observed ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area and an infantry fighting vehicle inside the Petrivske disengagement area. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in government- and non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The SMM observed mines near Yasne and Slavne, some for the first time, as well as unexploded ordnance near Khrestivka. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station and to monitor the security situation near the pumping station near Vasylivka. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at checkpoints near non-government-controlled Verkhnoshyrokivske, Zaichenko and Petrivske.* In Kyiv, the SMM observed a commemoration event for a journalist killed three years ago. The SMM observed a calm security situation in several regions of Ukraine during the Parliamentary Elections.

KYIV, 22 July 2019 – Ukraine’s early parliamentary elections were efficiently run and respected fundamental freedoms. The campaign was nevertheless characterised by widespread malpractice and the misuse of political finance through a complex blend of business and political interests, international observers concluded in a preliminary statement published today...