News and press releases

ERGNETI, 28 April 2014- Today, the 44th meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) took place in Ergneti, co-facilitated by Toivo Klaar, the Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Ambassador Angelo Gnaedinger, the OSCE Special Representative for the South Caucasus...

Between 11 and 27 April 2014, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo organized a series of five awareness-raising workshops on the protection of property and housing rights of non-Albanian communities, particularly land expropriation, illegal occupation and immovable property tax...

TIRANA, 24 April 2014- The OSCE Presence in Albania and the Ministry of Energy and Industry held today an inclusive discussion to promote the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and explain its benefits for local communities...

Community-law enforcement measures to combat hate crimes against Muslims were the focus of an expert meeting today in Vienna organized jointly by the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

SKOPJE, 28 April 2014 – Fundamental freedoms were respected and candidates were able to campaign without obstruction in the 27 April elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but shortcomings identified in the first round of the presidential election two weeks earlier, including the blurring of state and party activities and biased and unbalanced media coverage in favour of the ruling party, either persisted or were more pronounced, international observers said in a statement issued today...

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland, 28 April 2014 – The OSCE, with its comprehensive approach to security linking politico-military, economic and environmental and human rights objectives, was well-placed to assist participating States in preventing and combating terrorism, said Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Didier Burkhalter at the opening of an international counter-terrorism conference today.

BERN, 27 April 2014 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter condemned the detention of a group of military inspectors from OSCE participating States and of their Ukrainian hosts in Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine, and called for their release. One military inspector was set free today for health reasons, he confirmed. While this is a positive step, the OSCE continues to work at all levels – through the Special Monitoring Mission on the ground in Ukraine as well as through high-level political contacts – to assist for the release of all the detained persons, he said...