News and press releases

VIENNA, 4 June 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, published today a legal review of the Austrian draft Law on Diligence and Responsibility Online. The review was officially sent on 23 May 2019 to the President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, and to the Ministry for the EU, Art, Culture and Media.

Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 31 May and 1 June, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 1 and 2 June, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region compared with the previous 24 hours and no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. A woman was injured by shrapnel in Pikuzy. Residential buildings were damaged by small-arms fire and shrapnel in Chermalyk and Dokuchaievsk. The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The Mission’s freedom of movement was also restricted at a border crossing point outside government control and at a railway station near Voznesenivka, at a checkpoint in government-controlled Bohdanivka, and at checkpoints in non-government-controlled Zaichenko and Novoazovsk. The SMM saw a gathering of members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Chernivtsi...

TIRANA, 3 June 2019 – Visiting Albania, which will chair the OSCE in 2020, this year’s OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák, reiterated today in Tirana Slovakia’s commitment to supporting the country in preparing its 2020 OSCE Chairmanship...

KYIV, 3 June 2019- The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, today made the following statement:...

KYIV, 3 June 2019 – Margareta Kiener Nellen and Kyriakos Hadjiyianni, the Chair and Rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, respectively, today wrapped up a five-day mission to Ukraine, which included visits to the contact line in the east of the country, a centre for internally displaced persons, and medical facilities. Following the visit, which was supported by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), the PA delegation stressed that renewed conflict resolution efforts, freedom of movement for civilians, and concrete humanitarian measures are urgently needed in Ukraine...

BRATISLAVA, 3 June 2019 – OSCE PA President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) spoke today at the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, calling on both organizations to reinforce their partnership to achieve a safe and secure Europe without divisions.

A specialized training course on appropriate and effective responses to gender-based violence for Romanian police and prosecutors, organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department/Strategic Police Matters Unit, was held from 27 to 31 May 2019 in Poiana Brasov, Romania...