News and press releases

A five-day regional training course for 14 cybercrime and digital forensics investigators from Azerbaijan and Georgia focusing on investigating malware started on 27 March 2017 in Tbilisi. The course is organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Strategic Police Matters Unit with the support of the Georgia Internal Affairs Ministry and its Academy...

COPENHAGEN, 27 March 2017 – Belarusian authorities must respect principles of freedom of assembly in their handling of demonstrations, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee Chair Ignacio Sanchez Amor and Kent Harstedt, the Chair of the Assembly’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus, said today in response to mass arrests of protesters that took place over the weekend. They further called for the release of those who are still in detention...

SOFIA, 27 March 2017 – Contestants in Bulgaria’s early parliamentary elections could reach out to voters freely, while the low-key campaign was generally characterized by public disillusionment with politics and election weariness, international observers concluded in a preliminary statement released today. The legal framework is largely conducive to holding democratic elections, and amendments since the 2014 elections addressed some previous recommendations for improvements, but further efforts are needed, the statement says...

Strengthening protection and preparedness against terrorist attacks aimed at industrial control systems is the focus of a table-top simulation held in Skopje on 27 and 28 March 2017. Twenty-six experts from different state authorities and private sector representatives, such as operators, providers and owners, are participating in the national exercise organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department with the support of the OSCE Mission in Skopje...

WARSAW, 26 March 2017- Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, today condemned the reported undue restrictions on public assemblies and the unnecessary use of force by Belarusian authorities against peaceful protestors in Minsk and other cities in the country.

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission followed up on reports of a civilian casualty in Naberezhne and observed damage to houses and other infrastructure in Horlivka. The Mission monitored the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske, but its access there and elsewhere remained restricted.* An armed man fired a shot in the air 20m away from an SMM patrol in Znamianka.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The blockade of railway routes across the contact line in Buhas, Hirske and Bakhmut continued. In Kharkiv region the SMM continued monitoring the situation following a fire and a series of explosions at an ammunition storage depot...

At 12:10 on 24 March, an SMM patrol of four mission members in two armoured vehicles stopped at an abandoned bus stop about 800m west of “LPR”-controlled Znamianka (36km north-west of Luhansk) to monitor the ceasefire. On disembarking the SMM heard eight single shots of small-arms fire approximately 1km south...