News and press releases

BISHKEK, 16 December 2011 – After visiting prominent human rights defender Azimjan Askarov in prison, a delegation from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today urged Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court to take fair trial violations and indications of torture into account when reviewing the case of Askarov and other defendants convicted in relation to the June 2010 violence in the south of the country...

ASTANA, 13 December 2011- The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election observation mission for the 15 January early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan...

Justice Ministry officials and civil society representatives discussed the main principles of democratic law-making at a workshop organized on 10 December 2011 by ODIHR and the OSCE Centre in Bishkek in co-operation with the Justice Ministry of Kyrgyzstan...

VIENNA, 12 December 2011 – The dynamics behind the terrorist radicalization of women and ways to prevent it from happening was the focus of a meeting organized by the OSCE today for experts from academia, civil society, the media and OSCE participating States...

WARSAW, 9 December 2011 – One year after the OSCE participating States promised to step up their efforts to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, tangible progress remains elusive, said Ambassador Janez Lenarčič, the Director of ODIHR, ahead of international Human Rights Day...

The Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Ambassador Janez Lenarčič, gave a briefing to journalists on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial council in Vilnius on 6 December 2011.

Civil society in the OSCE Mediterranean Partner States could benefit from greater OSCE engagement in strengthening capacity at a time of rapid change and transition in the Middle East and North Africa, participants said at the end of a two-day conference in Vilnius on 5 December 2011...