News and press releases

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has conducted over 600 interviews to document alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law through its Ukraine Monitoring Initiative (UMI).

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes daily life, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is calling for renewed attention to a fundamental yet often overlooked right: freedom of thought.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) play an indispensable role in ensuring respect for and protection of human rights in the context of national security as counter-terrorism measures expand, often at the expense of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, participants said today at an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

WARSAW, 7 October 2025 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) expresses concern over the violent protests following Georgia’s recent local elections. Amid the rapid deterioration of the democratic and human rights environment in the country, ODIHR urges the Georgian authorities to respect the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and to ensure that civil society can carry out its important work freely and safely.

With democratic institutions under pressure across the OSCE region, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) brought together experts and officials at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference to discuss how democracy can adapt and remain resilient in times of change.

For 25 years, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has been helping states strengthen their electoral laws to ensure the transparency and integrity of elections and to bring countries’ legal frameworks in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards.

WARSAW, 6 October 2025 – As the OSCE marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, we must recommit to the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law on which the organisation was founded in order to overcome global challenges, OSCE leaders said today as governments, international organizations, and civil society came together for a 10-day conference dedicated to the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms across the OSCE area.