News and press releases

WARSAW, 2 April 2022 — The OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Poland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Zbigniew Rau, concluded his visit to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The trip focused on existing security challenges and efforts towards sustainable peace as well as strengthening the co-operation between the OSCE and the three states in the South Caucasus region. Throughout the visit from 29 March to 1 April, Minister Rau noted the impact Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has exerted on the security situation in the region. In all capitals he paid particular attention to the situation of the conflict-affected populations.

On 28 and 29 March 2022, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro visited the institutions of the European Union in Brussels.

Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office regulated the manner of documenting of criminal offences targeting persons who perform duties of importance to the public in the area of information dissemination, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. A prosecutor was selected to serve as a point of contact and coordinate with associations of journalists and law enforcement agencies involved in investigating and prosecuting these types of criminal offences. The Office of the Chief Prosecutor will perform oversight to ensure that these cases are handled efficiently and as a matter of priority.

WARSAW/VIENNA, 31 March 2022- OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid expressed their sincere regret that no consensus was reached on the extension of the mandate of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the Organization’s largest field presence and a key component of its response to the crisis in and around Ukraine.

From the very beginning of the European Youth Card programme, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro has strongly supported the development of this initiative in Montenegro, was the conclusion of the meeting of Siv-Katrine Leirtroe, Deputy Head of the Mission and Jugoslav Radović, Director of the Centre for Youth Education and Programme Director of European Youth Card Association (EYCA) on 31 March 2022 in Podgorica.

A three-day train-the-trainer course on countering terrorist financing (CFT) through investigations for North Macedonia concluded on 31 March 2022 in Vienna. The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, jointly with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and with the support of the OSCE Mission to Skopje. It aimed at strengthening the capacity of officials from North Macedonia to co-operate in conducting efficient CFT investigations.

On 30 March 2022, 11 practitioners from Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe took part in an interactive, online OSCE workshop on inclusive youth engagement in preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (P/CVERLT).