News and press releases

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized a two-day workshop on strategic planning for some 15 members and service staff of the State Election Commission (SEC) on 28 and 29 September 2017 in Podgorica...

VIENNA, 29 September 2017 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and his Special Representative Professor Peter Neumann addressed a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council today in Vienna to present an expert report on the OSCE’s activities to prevent violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism...

TBILISI, 29 September 2017 – Concluding a two-day visit to Georgia yesterday, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on the South Caucasus, Kristian Vigenin (MP, Bulgaria), urged continued efforts of reconciliation through improved conditions of the daily lives of people impacted by the protracted conflicts...

Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities in political and public life was the focus of an OSCE Mission to Skopje-organized workshop that took place on 28 September 2017 in Skopje.

While concluding that political parties were able to campaign freely in Albania’s 25 June 2017 parliamentary elections and that fundamental freedoms were respected, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) notes in its  final report an overall lack of public trust in the

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission followed up on reports of a civilian casualty from Vasylivka. It again observed damage to buildings from gunfire in Dokuchaievsk. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas and recorded ceasefire violations inside the disengagement area near Petrivske. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Horlivka, Trokhizbenka and Novoazovsk near the border with the Russian Federation.* The Mission facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance of essential infrastructure in Shchastia and near Artema, Almazna, Luhanske and Krasnyi Lyman. The SMM followed up on reports of an incident at an ammunition depot in Kalynivka, Vinnytsia region.

On 28 September 2017 at 06:34 (Moscow time), the sixty-seventh Russian convoy arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). A total of 20 vehicles were checked by the Russian border guards and customs services prior to their crossing into Ukraine. All of the 20 vehicles had crossed back into the Russian Federation by 13:15 on 28 September.