News and press releases

THE HAGUE, 24 October 2023 – The institution of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) marked its 30th anniversary today with a high-level conference at the Peace Palace in The Hague. At the event, High Commissioner Kairat Abdrakhmanov also presented new recommendations on the effective participation of national minorities in social and economic life.

On 17 October 2023, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) with the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Mission to Skopje and the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), under the auspices of the 2023 OSCE Chairpersonship of North Macedonia, organized a one-day Conference on Statelessness. The Conference was intended as an exchange forum for over eighty participants representing national authorities, civil society and international organizations, to facilitate practical and informative discussions aimed at sharing good practices to prevent and address statelessness in the South-Eastern Europe region.

SKOPJE, 17 October 2023 – Resolving all known cases of statelessness in South-Eastern Europe and preventing children from being born stateless are the commitments made by the national authorities and civil society representatives at a regional conference held today in Skopje, North Macedonia.

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov visited Serbia from 12 to 15 September 2023 to chair the Stakeholders’ Meeting of the Bujanovac Department of the Subotica Faculty of Economics of the University of Novi Sad and to hold consultations with Serbian authorities on the

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), in collaboration with the 2023 North Macedonia Chairpersonship, organized a high-level conference on 7 July 2023 in Vienna. The participants reflected on the achievements, challenges and lessons learned in promoting long-term social cohesion

GENEVA, 23 June 2023 – The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, and the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Gillian Triggs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to reinforce the long-standing co-operation between their respective institutions under common areas of mandated responsibilities. This includes, in particular, the interface between the protection of displaced and stateless persons and the role of the HCNM as an instrument of conflict prevention at the earliest possible stage in regard to tensions involving national minorities.

During a working visit to the Republic of Turkmenistan from 12 to 16 June 2023, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov met with representatives of the national and regional authorities. The visit included meetings with high-level officials in Ashgabat and the Dashoguz