News and press releases

The first activities of an action plan to create a more gender-sensitive national parliament in Montenegro were drafted during a workshop in Podgorica on 18-19 April 2016 organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro in co-operation with the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)...

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors visited Georgia from 12 to 15 April 2016, where she discussed policies to ensure the participation of minorities in public life, education reforms, language policy, and minority representation, among other issues.

WARSAW, 19 April 2016 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, today visited the headquarters of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in the context of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Office...

VIENNA, 19 April 2016- Interfaith dialogue and co-operation are key to fostering cohesion and preventing violent extremism, conclude participants of the OSCE Mediterranean Contact Group meeting held today in Vienna...

The SMM recorded a higher level of violence in Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with both 16 and 17 April. The Mission followed up on allegations of shelling in areas near the contact line. It noted weapons in violation of withdrawal lines and others absent from storage sites. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential infrastructure. It observed long queues at checkpoints along the contact line. The Mission monitored one border area outside government control and was denied access to another. The SMM’s freedom of movement was restricted further in areas not controlled by the Government, including access to a site known as a heavy weapons holding area. The SMM was threatened by armed men in areas outside of Government control...

TUZLA, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), 19 April 2016 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in co-operation with the Faculty of Law of the University of Tuzla, completed a series of lectures for students today on the work of the judicial and prosecutorial authorities in BiH in the fields of hate crimes, human trafficking, and processing war crimes cases...

VIENNA, 19 April 2016 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today expressed concern about the intimidation of journalist Nikolay Semena in Crimea, Ukraine...