News and press releases

The OSCE, in co-operation with the Government of Kazakhstan, concluded a two-day Central Asian Border Management Initiative (CABMI) conference on 6 November 2019 in Almaty. More than 30 participants gathered to discuss the achievements and challenges of border management in the region...

A three-day training course aimed at strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to disrupt the financing of terrorist networks concluded on 7 November 2019 in Burabay, Kazakhstan...

OSCE Presence in Albania-supported public discussions held across Albania- in Shkodra, Durrës and Korça- on civil society’s challenges and its future concluded on 7 November 2019 with the Korça Civil Society Forum...

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. Small-arms fire was assessed as directed at an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near non-government-controlled Metalist. The Mission observed demining

Bratislava/Vienna, Brussels, Geneva/New York, 6 November 2019- The Co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions call for the immediate re-opening of all crossing points on the administrative boundary line (ABL) with South Ossetia. Recent months have seen a serious deterioration of the security situation on the ground, which has raised fears amongst the local population. The engagement in the Ergneti Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) framework by all participants shows the mutual concern and commitment of all to de-escalate, which the Co-Chairs welcome. The Co-Chairs and their organizations remain actively engaged in contributing to a solution to the continuing security challenges in the Chorchana-Tsnelisi area.

COPENHAGEN, 6 November 2019 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is deploying some 80 observers, including 60 parliamentarians, to Belarus next week for the 17 November parliamentary elections.

BUCHAREST, 6 November 2019 – OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings Valiant Richey conducted an official visit to Romania this week. He praised the country for its progress in certain areas of its anti-trafficking efforts, while calling for improvement in others.

MURNAU AM STAFFELSEE, Germany, 6 November 2019 – A two-day conference on confidence-building measures in the Transdniestrian settlement process concluded yesterday in Murnau am Staffelsee, Bavaria, Germany. The conference offered an informal platform for in-depth exchanges between representatives from the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria on the ways to move forward with the outstanding priorities from the “Berlin-plus” package and beyond. Independent international experts and representatives from the mediators and observers in the 5+2 format contributed to these discussions...

For the first time, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine streamed live on the web a meeting of its members on Tuesday, 5 November 2019. This was made possible by the conference system that was provided and installed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine earlier this year. The streaming was a pilot project with the Commission intending to make its meetings available online on a regular basis.

Summary Compared with the previous 24 hours, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM confirmed reports of a man and a woman who died after a grenade exploded inside their apartment in government-controlled Kurakhove. The SMM saw damage from

Protection of cultural heritage by creating cultural property databases to prevent trafficking in cultural property was the focus of the seminar for seven Montenegrin institutions on 5 November 2019 in Podgorica...

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons decreased at both BCPs compared to the previous week.

The protection of people in police custody from torture and other ill-treatment, and ensuring safeguards such as access to a lawyer and effective legal representation during criminal investigations, were the focus of a regional meeting of representatives of national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) and human rights defenders active in the fight against torture, which took place in Strasbourg on 5 November 2019.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, welcomed today’s court decision in Turkey to release the journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak.

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 1 and 2 November, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and a similar number of ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 2 and 3 November, the Mission recorded more ceasefire

OSCE supported a workshop on the use of a methodological guide for an optional high school course “Holocaust: the History and Lessons of Life”. Over 30 history and civil education teachers attended the training course on 31 October and 1 November 2019 in Chisinau.

KYIV, 4 November 2019 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made today the following statement to the press...

The OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) concluded its 25th Border Management Staff Course in Dushanbe on 1 November 2019...

Border officials from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan completed a one-week workshop on analytical research and information sharing practices on 25 October 2019 in Dushanbe. The training provided the 15 participants with skills for efficient analysis of risks and threats, and tools for information sharing between border protection agencies to better prevent border incidents in the region. The training was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe.

On 1 November, the SMM received a letter from the armed formations in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region, notifying that they had completed the withdrawal of forces and hardware in the agreed disengagement area near Zolote...

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A boy was injured due to small-arms fire in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. The SMM saw damage to a house in Oleksandrivka. The Mission observed further withdrawal of forces

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region. It recorded no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. The SMM saw a crater in the yard of a residential house in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. The SMM observed further withdrawal of forces

VIENNA, 1 November 2019- More than 170 experts from OSCE participating States and the Partners for Co-operation gathered in Vienna on 31 October and 1 November 2019 for the Third OSCE-wide Seminar on Passenger Data Exchange. The event, which this year focuses on how to counter the risks posed by returned foreign terrorist fighters, was organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Border Security and Management Unit and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT)...

The safety of journalists is of utmost importance for the work of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and it fully endorses the commitments made by Montenegro and other OSCE participating States at the OSCE Ministerial Council on the Safety of Journalists in December 2018.

Some 230 representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, press services of government bodies, independent media, academia, and international organizations took part in the second Annual Partnership Media Conference on 31 October 2019 in Bishkek.

The second training course on good practices in interviewing victims of human trafficking, organized as part of an OSCE project, was held from 28 to 31 October 2019 in Kyiv for Ukrainian officials working in this area...

A four-day training course on "Combatting Cybercrime and Conducting Digital Investigations" for professionals concluded on 31 October 2019 in Tashkent. The seminar was organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the Academy of the General Prosecutor's Office of the country with the support of the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Secretariat.

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM observed further withdrawal of forces and hardware from the Zolote disengagement area. Inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area, the Mission

VIENNA, 31 October 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, stressed today the need to protect journalists and prosecute those responsible for crimes committed against them, on the occasion of the upcoming International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists...

VIENNA, 31 October 2019 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli appealed today to strengthen co-operation between all OSCE institutions in an effort to close the gap between what governments have committed to and what they do in practice...

Experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented the final report and recommendations of the assessment mission to the 6 October 2018 parliamentary elections in Latvia. ODIHR experts reiterated their earlier assessment that the elections were

Anti-corruption performance indicators based on benchmarks of international standards and good practices were the focus of an OSCE-supported workshop on 30 and 31 October 2019 in Paris...

As part of the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the International Labour Organization, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia (RUEA) co-organized the event “Leaving no one behind: Promoting social economy for an inclusive and prosperous Armenia” on 30 October 2019 in Yerevan. Discussions at the event focused on promoting financial stability and social cohesion through more effective eco-systems for social enterprises.

Members of the Montenegrin Parliament and staff participated in a study mission to the Slovak National Council on 28 and 29 October 2019. The event was organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro in co-ordination with the Slovak Chair of the OSCE...

STOCKHOLM, 31 October 2019 – Nordic approaches to issues on the OSCE agenda, including human rights and environmental concerns, have been underlined by a high-level Parliamentary Assembly delegation at the 2019 Meeting of the Nordic Council...

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and fewer in Luhansk regions. The Mission observed the beginning of the disengagement process at the Zolote disengagement area. Small-arms fire was assessed as directed at an SMM mini-unmanned

TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan, 30 October 2019- Two OSCE-supported events launched activities in Turkmenistan aimed at promoting green ports and connectivity in the Caspian Sea region. A roundtable discussion for experts on 29 October took place in Ashgabat and a technical workshop was held on 30 October at the Turkmenbashi International Seaport.

The II Central Asian Dialogue on reduction of prison population and development of probation is taking place from 28 to 31 October 2019 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The event was co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, the Penal Reform International Office in Central Asia, the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Asia Group, the British Embassy in Kazakhstan, the Prison Committees of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Twenty-five female members from across the local councils in the Chuy province, local activists and potential candidates for the 2020 local council elections are taking part in a train-the-trainer capacity building course from 29 to 31 October 2019 in Bishkek. The event is organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

KYIV, 30 October 2019 – The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Yaşar Halit Çevik, welcomed the beginning, yesterday, of the disengagement of forces and hardware from the Zolote disengagement area.

Summary Compared with the previous 24 hours, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. Small-arms fire was assessed as aimed at an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near non-government-controlled Sentianivka. The SMM saw for the first time anti-tank

MINSK, 29 October 2019 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its working groups in Minsk on 29 October 2019...

Shortly after 12:00 (Eastern European Time) on 29 October, the SMM observed the beginning of the disengagement process at the Zolote disengagement area. SMM patrols positioned both on the northern and southern edge of the area saw the launch of flares by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the armed formations, signaling both sides’ readiness to disengage...

MINSK, 29 October 2019 – In the course of the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and its working groups in Minsk on 29 October 2019, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press...

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons increased at both BCPs compared to the previous week.

Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), met with Kathleen Kavalec, the newly appointed Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 October 2019...

Maryse Daviet, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro participated in the opening of the fourth regional conference of equality bodies in South-Eastern Europe on 28 and 29 October 2019 in Podgorica. The conference was hosted by the Institution of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro...

Summary Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 25 and 26 October, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 26 and 27 October, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and

BRATISLAVA, 28 October 2019 – Young women and men from across the OSCE region and beyond gathered in Bratislava today to discuss how to best engage youth for a safer future by 2030. The two-day OSCE-wide Youth Forum brings together young people, ambassadors, diplomats and experts for an inter-generational dialogue under the OSCE’s flagship Perspectives 20-30 initiative, a key priority of Slovakia’s OSCE Chair...

COPENHAGEN, 28 October 2019 – Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus) and Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), Chair and Vice-Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, called today for authorities in Minsk to halt the execution of Viktar Syarhel, who was reportedly sentenced to death in Belarus for killing an eight-month old girl...