News and press releases

WARSAW, 20 June 2019- On World Refugee Day and amid ever more restrictive interpretations of international legal standards to protect people in search of international protection, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) calls on governments to do more to ensure the primacy of human rights for all those seeking safety in our countries, so far away from home...

National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are uniquely placed to monitor the economic and social rights policies of their states and evaluate the allocation of resources to ensure effective protection of these rights, said participants in the annual NHRI Academy, which took place in Venice from 3 to 7 June 2019.

Taking stock and identifying ways to make multilateral cooperation in the fight against torture more effective were the focus of the conference ‘Effective multilateralism in the fight against torture: Trends in the OSCE region and the way forward’ that took place on 5 June 2019 in Vienna.

Opportunities and benefits technology provides to governmental institutions, law enforcement agencies, corporations and civil society in identifying victims of human trafficking were the focus of discussion at an event on 9 April 2019 during the 19th Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference in Vienna. The panel discussion was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department.

Advancing the freedom of religion or belief for all was at the centre of discussion at roundtable events held in Sarajevo and Banja Luka on 12 and 13 March 2019, respectively. The events were organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Protecting and promoting human rights while policing assemblies, as well as police accountability, were the focus of a three-day training course organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) from 13 to 15 February 2019 in Yerevan. The training event brought

Building the capacity of human rights defenders to use open source investigation techniques for human rights monitoring projects was the focus of a training workshop, organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in co-operation with the nonprofit technology