News and press releases

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek supported a training course in the capital from 5 to 8 April 2014 on human rights monitoring for staff of Kyrgyzstan’s National Centre for Torture Prevention (NTPC), NGO representatives, the National Ombudsman Office and the Co-ordination Council on Human Rights...

OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier visited Madrid for consultations on 7 April 2014. He held separate talks with the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo and Spanish members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where he discussed challenges in the OSCE region...

BUDAPEST, 7 April 2014 – The 6 April 2014 parliamentary elections were well administered and offered voters a diverse choice, but a number of factors provided undue advantage to the ruling party, international observers said in a statement issued today. These included the manner in which a large number of changes to the legal framework were passed, restrictive campaign regulations, biased media coverage and the blurring of the separation between a ruling political party and the state...

Medical students from the Nace Bugjoni high school in Kumanovo were the recipients of the first grant from the new Building Bridges Fund, and used the money to hold a public event on 7 April 2014 to raise awareness about World Health Day.

Following their briefing of Minsk Group members in Vienna on April 3, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States of America) met on April 4 with the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, and Armenia, Edward Nalbandian. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, also participated in the meeting.

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities has been closely following developments in Ukraine since the office was established in 1993 to act as an instrument of conflict prevention at the earliest stage. The successive High Commissioners have paid particular attention to the inter-ethnic situation in Crimea, legislation regulating minority rights and language use, and the education of national minorities...

Experts from OSCE participating States, and representatives of academia and civil society came together for a workshop in Vienna on 4 April 2014 to discuss the first study on existing National Action Plans on implementing Women, Peace and Security commitments in the OSCE region...