News and press releases

Dushanbe, 28 September 2017 – A four-day OSCE regional workshop on explosive hazards reduction and response, organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, concluded today in Dushanbe. The event, hosted by the Tajikistan National Mine Action Centre, gathered 32 military and civilian experts from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as representatives from international NGOs such as Small Arms Survey and Norwegian People’s Aid.

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region compared with the previous 24 hours and no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. The Mission observed damage to buildings from gunfire in Dokuchaievsk. It continued monitoring the disengagement areas and recorded a ceasefire violation near the Petrivske disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Horlivka.* The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Khlibodarivka and Muratove, and in Oleksandropil. Aerial imagery revealed the presence of over 180 tanks and howitzers in non-government-controlled areas, as well as new trenches near Vodiane and the road M03 between Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve. The Mission facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of essential infrastructure in Shchastia, near Artema, and between Marinka and Oleksandrivka. It visited three border areas outside of government control. The SMM continued to monitor the situation of schools near the contact line.

VIENNA, 27 September 2017 – “Combating online threats against female journalists will remain at the top of my agenda as it is an integral part of the safety of journalists. There can be no freedom of the media without safety,” said the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir, opening the first of a series of workshops on the online safety of female journalists, which concluded in Vienna today...

More than 150 representatives of civil society, international organizations and academia, as well as government and elected officials, gathered in Kyiv on 26 and 27 September to review the results of activities carried out with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to strengthen the human dimension of security in Ukraine.

Parliamentary oversight of security forces and ways of dealing with challenges in its implementation were the focus of the session of the Forum for Security Co-operation held under Serbia’s Chairmanship on 27 September 2017 in Vienna.

BISHKEK, 27 September 2017- Kazakh specialists shared their experience in the development of an electronic unified state registry of crimes and misdemeanours and other software applications used by the offices of the public prosecutor in Kazakhstan with representatives of the Kyrgyz General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) and other stakeholders during a three-day visit of the Kazakh General Prosecutor’s staff to Bishkek, supported by the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, from 20 to 23 September 2017.

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons slightly increased at both BCPs compared to the previous week...