News and press releases

The SMM observed a sharp increase in the number of ceasefire violations in Donetsk region. In Luhansk region the SMM recorded a low number of ceasefire violations. It facilitated dialogue within the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination. The SMM observed the marking of mined areas in the security zone. It followed up on reports of injured civilians. The Mission reached one border crossing point in areas not controlled by the Government. The SMM was restricted in its freedom of movement in areas not controlled by the Government, including in the border area*...

VIENNA, 31 March 2016 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović wrote today to Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs asking for more information about the shutting down of the sputniknews.lv news portal...

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities co-organized a conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 28 to 29 March 2016 on education challenges in multilingual and multicultural contexts in Central Asia. The conference, organized with the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IEFAC), UNICEF

ASHGABAT, 31 March 2016 – Ten high level-officers from the State Border Service of Turkmenistan took part in a roundtable meeting that took place today. The meeting was organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat in co-operation with the State Border Service of Turkmenistan to assess the needs of the national border guards with the aim of enhancing their border patrol capacities...

SKOPJE, 31 March 2016 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission (EOM) for the early parliamentary elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, scheduled for 5 June. The mission’s deployment follows an invitation from the authorities...

BISHKEK, 31 March 2016 – A series of two consecutive one-week training courses co-organized by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek on the security and management of small arms and light weapons and stockpiles of conventional ammunition concluded in Bishkek today...

An OSCE-supported training seminar for judges from Kazakhstan’s regional courts on countering the trafficking of human beings began in Astana on 31 March 2016...