News and press releases
News and press releases from the OSCE's global activities.
Urgent action needed to protect civic space against misuse of counter-terrorism, ODIHR event underlines
Publishing date: 5 October 2022
The misuse of counter-terrorism measures against dissenting voices has reached alarming levels in the OSCE region, participants concluded at an event on counter-terrorism and shrinking civic space organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 4 October 2022.
Ensuring and monitoring the right to freedom of peaceful assembly during pandemic the focus of ODIHR event
Publishing date: 28 September 2022
Challenges and good practices in ensuring the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, including at times of pandemic, were discussed at an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 28 September 2022 on the margins of the Warsaw Human Dimension
Moscow Mechanism expert presents report to OSCE Permanent Council on the Russian Federation
Publishing date: 22 September 2022
The OSCE Moscow Mechanism rapporteur Professor Angelika Nussberger presented findings collected in the ‘Report on Russia’s Legal and Administrative Practice in Light of its OSCE Human Dimension Commitments’ to the OSCE Permanent Council on 22 September 2022.
OSCE human rights office alarmed by court verdicts against human rights defenders in Belarus
Publishing date: 7 September 2022
WARSAW, 7 September 2022 – Following verdicts against a number of human rights defenders in Belarus in a trial held behind closed doors, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) expressed alarm about the increasing repression of human rights defenders in the country as well as the lack of fair trial guarantees.
Places of worship must be kept safe and accessible in times of peace and in conflict, OSCE human rights head says
Publishing date: 22 August 2022
WARSAW, 22 August 2022 — Establishing, maintaining, and accessing places and objects of worship or contemplation are crucial to the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, which applies during conflict and in times of peace, said the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion.
OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism invoked to examine serious concerns about the Russian Federation’s fulfilment of its human rights commitments
Publishing date: 28 July 2022
Thirty-eight OSCE participating States invoked the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on 28 July 2022 in order “to establish a mission of experts to look into and report on the ongoing concerns […] identified as particularly serious threats to the fulfilment of the provisions of the OSCE human dimension by the Russian Federation, to assess Russia’s legal and administrative practice in light of its OSCE commitments, to establish the facts, and to provide recommendations and advice”.
Greater efforts needed to protect the human trafficking victims struggling to access their rights, OSCE leaders say
Publishing date: 18 July 2022
VIENNA/WARSAW, 18 July 2022 – Protecting the human rights of trafficking victims must be placed at the heart of all responses to this global crime that particularly targets women and girls, who are even more at risk in situations of armed conflict, OSCE leaders said at the opening of a two-day conference today.