News and press releases

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.

Twenty-two young officials working in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan’s presidential administrations, parliaments, government agencies, research and academic institutions are taking part in a five-day Young Policy Advisers Course (YPAC) from 14 to 18 March in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

An OSCE-supported series of seminars on enhancing the role and capacity of maslikhats (local self-governance bodies) was launched, in a blended format, from 19 October to 23 November 2021. The event covers all fourteen provinces and the three major cities – Almaty, Nur-Sultan and Shymkent. Some 140 deputies of the district, city and province-level maslikhats of the Kostanay province attended the first event.

STOCKHOLM, 3 October 2021 — The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde highlighted today the importance of the landmark Document of the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE – the Moscow Document – which was adopted 30 years ago today by participating States.

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 15 September 2021 – As we mark World Democracy Day, we affirm the principle of the people’s expression of free will, be it at the ballot box, or through media, as a basis of authority for any form of government.

WARSAW, 23 August 2021 – Despite a number of positive legal changes to the nomination process for the judges of Georgia’s Supreme Court, today’s final monitoring report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) shows that the stage of the appointment procedure carried out by parliament still lacks adequate safeguards, negatively affecting the integrity of the overall process.

WARSAW, 20 August 2021 – Governments need to work harder to protect victims of religious hate crimes, and consistently condemn and prosecute all bias-motivated crimes, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said ahead of the third anniversary of the United Nations International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion.