News and press releases

Over 30 parliamentarians, holders of executive positions, and experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia gathered on 15 May 2018 in Sarajevo at a regional meeting on gender equality and corruption hosted by the OSCE Mission to BiH, in co-operation with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the OSCE field operations in the region...

At 09:30 on 15 May, an SMM patrol consisting of six members and two armoured vehicles positioned itself on the H20 road about 1.6km south-east of Kamianka (government-controlled, 20km north of Donetsk) and about 1km west of the contact line....

ERGNETI, 15 May 2018- The 86th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting was held in Ergneti, on 15 May 2018. The meeting was conducted in a business-like atmosphere...

VIENNA, 15 May 2018 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir raised concern today over a raid by security services of Ukraine against Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and TV channel RT offices today in Kyiv as well as the searches of homes of journalists and their arrests...

VIENNA, 15 May 2018 – Welcoming the entering into force of Malta’s new Media and Defamation Act, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM), Harlem Désir, called on the authorities to engage in further legal and policy reforms on civil defamation legislation...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations inside the Petrivske and near the Zolote disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted there and elsewhere, including in Donske and Izvaryne. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The Mission continued to facilitate access to the Donetsk Filtration Station for Voda Donbassa water company employees in order to keep the station operational; it heard ceasefire violations in the area despite security guarantees. The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to high-voltage power lines near Almazna and to the Petrivske pumping station near Artema. In Berehove, the Mission followed up further on reports of damage to nine cars with Hungarian licence plates. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored two marches: one on the occasion of Mother’s Day and the second one on affordable housing programmes for internally displaced persons and ATO veterans...

Trial monitoring and fair trial rights were the focus of a two-day training event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Skopje, on 14 and 15 May 2018 in Skopje. The trainees – 18 women and five men – were