News and press releases

STRASBOURG/WARSAW, 22 March 2021 – Kyrgyzstan’s draft constitution would result in a complete change of the country’s constitutional order if adopted and raises grave concerns over the lack of respect for the principles of the rule of law, separation of powers, and inherent lack of checks and balances, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe said in a joint legal opinion.

Geneva/Strasbourg/Vienna/Warsaw, 19 March 2021 – The pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for governments, health systems and societies at large, with many people in despair. We also witnessed solidarity with generosity, care and commitment towards the most vulnerable. This crisis offers us a unique opportunity to create more inclusive and equal societies, said the heads of four human rights institutions ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

VIENNA, 9 March 2021 – Ensuring both equal opportunities and equal safeguards for women and men is key to an independent and diverse media landscape, which is vital for open societies based on the principles at the heart of OSCE commitments to human rights and democracy, participants said at a two-day OSCE meeting that ended today.

WARSAW, 16 February 2021 – Following a wave of concerted police searches of human rights activists throughout Belarus today, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) voices its utmost concern and calls on the Belarusian authorities to respect the rights of those who seek to protect the rights of their fellow citizens and not to criminalize their legitimate human rights work.

STOCKHOLM/WARSAW/WASHINGTON, 27 January 2021 – “Co-operation and an ongoing conversation about the changing face of anti-Semitism are crucial to ensure that we do not only commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust but also learn from it for the future,” leading OSCE officials said on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

WARSAW, 10 December 2020 – On Human Rights Day, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) pays tribute to human rights defenders and many organizations across the OSCE region that have protected our rights throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and will have a key role to play if the global recovery is to put respect for human rights at its core.

WARSAW, 13 November 2020 – As pervasive violations of OSCE commitments and international human rights obligations in Belarus continue, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) calls on the country’s authorities to end impunity of those responsible for human rights violations, up to and including deaths, and hold them to account...