News and press releases

Countering the illicit financial flows linked with Afghan opiates trafficking was at the centre of a meeting by the Expert Working Group of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Paris Pact Initiative hosted by the OSCE on 30 May 2022.

Following national awareness raising workshops on social re-use of confiscated assets in 2020 and 2021, government officials and civil society representatives from South-Eastern Europe gathered in Rome on 30 and 31 May for a seminar on the re-use, including re-use for social purposes, of criminal assets.

Countering emerging threats posed by the illicit trafficking of cultural property was the focus of a three-day national workshop, organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, Border Security and Management Unit, in close co-ordination with national customs officials in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The crucial importance of integrating a gender inclusive and human rights-based approach in border security and management in times of crises, especially when dealing with refugees at the borders, was the focus of webinar organized by the Border Security and Management Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department on 25 May 2022.

On 29 April 2022, Almazbek Beishenaliev, Minister of Education and Science of Kyrgyzstan, and Alexander Wolters, Director of the OSCE Academy in Bishkek signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen the cooperation in youth crime and drug use prevention.

The social re-use of confiscated assets was the focus of three training events held by the OSCE and the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The events were held on May 13 (Sarajevo), 16 (Tuzla) and 17 (Banja Luka). The 80 participants from civil society organizations had the opportunity to reflect on how they can contribute to the fight against organized crime and corruption and discussed which mechanisms civil society can effectively use to implement projects on social re-use.

A two-week training course for 20 mid-level Armenian police officers commenced on 29 April at the Police Education Complex in Yerevan.