News and press releases

TBILISI, 20 July 2018- The 15th South Caucasus Media Conference, a two-day annual meeting organized by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, concluded yesterday...

Building the capacity of Polish police forces to provide training on effective and human rights-compliant policing in Roma communities was the focus of a course organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the Regional Police Headquarters in Krakow, in Zakopane, Poland from 17 to 20 July 2018.

COPENHAGEN, 20 July 2018 – Following the end of a two-year state of emergency in Turkey earlier this week, the officers of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Chair Margareta Kiener-Nellen (MP, Switzerland), Vice-Chair Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus) issued the following statement:

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. Machine gun rounds were fired in the direction of an SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle in Khrustalnyi. The SMM observed damage to civilian properties in a residential area of Dokuchaievsk. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote and Petrivske disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted in all three areas, as well as in areas of Donetsk region outside government control near Zaichenko and Bezimenne. The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Khrustalnyi. The SMM continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to critical civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Nelipivka, Stanytsia Luhanska, Bolotene, Artema and Novotoshkivske...

The HAGUE, 20 July 2018 – High school students from the Municipality of Jajce in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) were selected as the winner of the 2018 Max van der Stoel Award. The award is given in recognition of their outstanding courage and inspirational activism, which led to the prevention of further segregation in schools in Jajce as well as throughout the country.

Strengthening the capacity of crisis negotiators from across Kazakhstan was the focus of a five-day training course held from 16 to 20 July 2018 in Koschi, Kazakhstan. The event was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, the Embassy of Israel in Astana and the Ministry of Public Security of the State of Israel, together with the Law Enforcement Agencies Academy under Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

VIENNA, 19 July 2018 – While a new recommitment to cease fire that came into effect on 1 July has brought an immediate decrease in violence, a comprehensive ceasefire is yet to be reached, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), Ertugrul Apakan, said in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today...