News and press releases

How can States, policy-makers and educators find an appropriate balance between protecting identity and promoting integration in schools? This question was the focus of a side event organized by the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting on 29 September 2014...

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) presented their Handbook on Observing and Promoting the Participation of National Minorities in Electoral Processes at a side event on the first day of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 22 September 2014.

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors visited Ukraine from 15 to 17 September 2014 to take stock of the situation since her last visit. She said that while the situation remains extremely tense and challenging, there are positive developments, including the ceasefire following the signing of the Minsk Protocol on 5 September 2014.

In the first visit by a High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) to Albania since 1994, Astrid Thors exchanged views with the country’s President Bujar Nishani and Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati on regional co-operation. She welcomed the country’s proactive steps to forge closer ties with its regional neighbours, particularly in education matters, stressing that “national minorities can be a bridge to facilitate such initiatives"...

During her visit to Belgrade OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) on 28 and 29 August 2014, Astrid Thors took part in the presentation of a study co-financed by HCNM on teaching and learning the Serbian language as a non-mother tongue in South Serbia...

In her second statement to the Permanent Council on 10 July 2014, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors focused on aspects of the crisis in Ukraine related to her mandate...

THE HAGUE, 10 July 2014 – Spravedlivost, a non-governmental organization based in Jalal-Abad in southern Kyrgyzstan, has been named as the 2014 winner of the Max van der Stoel Award, for its outstanding work in improving the position of national minorities in the OSCE area...