News and press releases

On 31 May, the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek held a round table to discuss the results of the study “Violence against Women in Politics in Kyrgyzstan”- the first one ever conducted in the host state. The study was conducted from November 2021 to January 2022 by the non-governmental organization "Agency for Social Technologies", with the support of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

A team of law students from the Free University of Tbilisi has won the final of the moot court competition on the rights of people with disabilities hosted in Warsaw today by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The competition was the first of its kind organized by

On 18-19 May, the OSCE Programme Office (POiB) kicked-off a series of capacity-building activities, within its programmatic efforts to support peacebuilding activities in Kyrgyzstan. The workshop, which was held in Osh city, focused on strengthening Kyrgyzstan’s early warning and conflict prevention institutions, including within the framework of implementing the national civic integration concept “Kyrgyz Jarany” (“Kyrgyz Citizen”).

The Jogorku Kenesh is the national parliament of Kyrgyzstan, it consists of 90 members of parliament, including 19 women MPs. Some 50 newly elected parliamentarians and staff of the administration of the Jogorku Kenesh of Kyrgyzstan took part in a series of orientation seminars during April and May, organized with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Kyrgyzstan and the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek. The seminars aimed to enhance professional knowledge and skills of the newly elected MPs and the staff, thereby strengthening the institutional capacity of the Jogorku Kenesh.

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro, organised a roundtable discussion on “Achieving gender equality in political life in Montenegro: The role of political parties”, on 17 May 2022 in Podgorica.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo concluded a series of 23 workshops for new municipal assembly members, elected for the first time in the October 2021 local elections. The trainings focused on assembly members’ role in representing all members of their constituencies and in enhancing the functioning of their respective municipal assemblies.

A four-day workshop with the Central Election Commission (CEC) on reviewing electoral rules concluded in Struga, North Macedonia, on April 21. The aim was to review and align these rules with the current Law on General Elections and other related laws in Kosovo, as recommended by international observer organizations and the OSCE Mission, based on lessons learnt from previous electoral processes. During the workshop the CEC, supported by the Mission’s Election Team, identified issues that require legal change and prepared a set of recommendations for future reference by the Assembly of Kosovo ad-hoc Committee on improving and strengthening the electoral process and its advisory group. The CEC looked into the most important rules related to the registration and operation of political parties, the certification of political entities and their code of conduct, the election observers, as well as the electoral rules relating to the voter list and out-of-Kosovo voting. They were also briefed on international standards and good practices on elections. “Clear electoral procedures help both the CEC in smooth delivery of elections but also the public in increasing their confidence in the overall election processes,” said Nathania Tabone, the Mission’s Senior Election Legal Adviser. The changes to the electoral rules agreed upon by the CEC during the workshop will be finalized by the CEC in the coming weeks. The final draft regulations should be subject to a public consultation with other key electoral stakeholders, such as specialized civil society organizations on elections and Elections Complaints and Appeals Panel. The Mission will continue to provide the CEC, the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, and their Secretariats with technical advice and expertise in line with international standards and follow up on the implementation of recommendations made by international election observation missions.