News and press releases

OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized a workshop for municipal gender focal points in Montenegro on 8 and 9 December 2016 in Podgorica. The event provided an opportunity for representatives of municipalities, civil sector and the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights to meet and discuss the draft of the analysis on gender mainstreaming at the local level...

In Donetsk region the SMM recorded a similar number of ceasefire violations between the evening of 9 December and the evening of 10 December compared with the previous reporting period, and fewer on 11 December. In Luhansk region the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations between the evening of 9 December and the evening of 10 December compared with the previous reporting period, but more on 11 December. The SMM followed up on reports of shelling in Donetsk city, Dokuchaievsk, Hryhorivka and Zhovte. The Mission continued to monitor the disengagement areas in Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske, but was restricted in its access. The SMM monitored four border areas currently outside government control...

BERLIN, 12 December 2016 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a statement today said he considered the elections that took place in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 11 December 2016 to be “an important step to settle the continued political crisis in the country.” Steinmeier noted that the International Election Observation Mission under the aegis of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights found in its statement, as presented today in Skopje, that the election proceeded without major incidents...

The annual OSCE-supported Youth Legal Forum concluded on 10 December 2016 at the Kazakh Humanities and Law University (KAZGUU) in Astana. This year’s two-day event focused on the limits to restricting freedom of expression and distribution of information on the Internet, in recognition of the International Human Rights Day...

SKOPJE, 12 December 2016 – The 11 December parliamentary elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were competitive and an essential step in resolving two years of deep political crisis, but took place in an environment characterized by widespread public mistrust in institutions and the political establishment, international election observers concluded in a preliminary statement released today...

COPENHAGEN, 12 December 2016 – In response to this weekend’s terrorist attacks near a football stadium in Istanbul and at a Coptic Christian cathedral complex in Cairo, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Christine Muttonen (MP, Austria) issued the following statement...

BERLIN/VIENNA, 11 December 2016- Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier together with Secretry General Lamberto Zannier condemned in the strongest terms the acts of terrorism that hit Istanbul on 10 December 2016 and Cairo on 11 December 2016. They extended their condolences to the families and friends of the numerous victims and wished a speedy recovery to those that got injured. Steinmeier and Zannier expressed their solidarity with Turkey, an OSCE participating State and Egypt, an OSCE Partner for Co-operation...