News and press releases

Hamburg, 7 December 2016 – In his capacity as Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today attended the closing session of the Parallel Civil Society Conference, held in Hamburg on 6 and 7 December just ahead of the Ministerial Council meeting. During the two-day event, organized by the OSCE-wide NGO coalition “Civic Solidarity Platform” more than 100 civil society representatives discussed and adopted concrete recommendations directed at the OSCE, its Institutions, field presences and participating States. The participants also adopted a “Hamburg Declaration” that calls for protecting and expanding civil society space.

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region compared with the previous reporting period...

BELGRADE, 7 December 2016 – Two Supreme Court of Cassation judges, Radmila Dragičević Dičić and Snežana Andrejević, journalist Tamara Skrozza, and Novi Pazar State University professor Senad Ganić received the OSCE Mission to Serbia’s Person of the Year Award at a ceremony today in Belgrade...

Some 76 school secretaries at primary and secondary schools in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, as well as representatives of the Canton’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and Education Inspectorate completed a three-day workshop organized by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 7 December 2016 in Mostar, with the aim of enhancing co-operation in education on multiple levels...

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in co-operation with the University of Banjaluka’s Faculty of Political Science, on 6 December 2016 organized a conference in Banjaluka highlighting the problems facing the country’s marginalized communities...

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...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and in Luhansk region compared with the period between the evenings of 3 and 4 December. It continued to face restrictions of its movement in the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. The SMM’s freedom of movement was restricted on four occasions elsewhere. The SMM followed up on reports of damage to civilian infrastructure. The Mission continued to note queues at entry-exit checkpoints on both sides of the contact line. The SMM monitored one border crossing area not controlled by the Government. It facilitated and monitored repair works in Krasnyi Lyman and Orikhove...