News and press releases

Measures to make political parties in Ukraine and in the wider OSCE region more transparent and accountable were the focus of an expert workshop jointly organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the partners. They included the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the Ukrainian civil society organizations Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) as well as the Civil Network “OPORA”. The event was hosted by the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv,on 14 and 15 July 2015.

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements.” Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed 50 ceasefire violations at and around Donetsk airport. The situation around Shyrokyne remained calm. The SMM continued to facilitate demining and repair work on a major water-supply system between Maiorsk and Horlivka. The SMM monitored the security situation in Mukacheve and Right Sector protests across Ukraine...

VIENNA, 14 July 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today said, she was concerned about amendments to the Russian Law on Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information which requires Internet search engines to delete information upon request of individuals...

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Bulgaria’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) signed an agreement on 13 July 2015 in Warsaw to train prosecutors in recognizing, understanding and investigating hate crimes.

OSCE Mission to Skopje and the Ministry of Education and Science held a ceremony to award schools that won the title of being safe and environmentally friendly, in Skopje on 14 July 2015...

On 10 July, the OSCE Mission to Moldova organized the second meeting this year of the Human Rights Club for lawyers from both banks of the Dniester/Nistru River. The event was held at the Tiraspol office of the OSCE Mission to Moldova and brought together more than 40 lawyers...

OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine conducted the Second Summer School on General Legal Theory for Law Professors held in Tatariv, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, on 8-11 July 2015...

SARAJEVO, 14 July 2015-- The non-profit sector is essential to cohesive and democratic societies resilient to terrorism, yet it may be vulnerable to abuses for terrorist financing, warned experts at an OSCE-supported workshop that started today in Sarajevo...

COPENHAGEN, 13 July 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions today called for an immediate end to evictions in Roma communities in Bulgaria and criticized political leaders for incidents of hate speech...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM continued to observe ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. No violence was observed in Shyrokyne. The Luhansk region remained largely calm. Repair works on the regional water-supply pipeline leading to Horlivka was suspended due to ceasefire violations on 11 July. The SMM observed protest gatherings of the Right Sector across the country after an armed incident on 11 July in Mukacheve...

SARAJEVO, 13 July 2015 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) presented today in Sarajevo its latest report entitled Combating Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Progress and Challenges...

WARSAW, 13 July 2015 – Michael Georg Link, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today called on Bulgarian authorities to immediately address interethnic tension and halt evictions in Roma communities...

On 12 July, the SMM dispatched a patrol of the Ivano-Frankivsk-based team to monitor events in the wake of an armed incident that reportedly occurred the previous day in Mukacheve (Zakarpattia region, 605km south-west of Kyiv). According to media reports, at least two people were killed – reportedly members of the Right Sector (Pravyi Sektor) – and several others were wounded in a shootout at a café allegedly owned by a member of parliament (Verkhovna Rada)...

SARAJEVO, 12 July 2015- Ambassador Jonathan Moore, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, has strongly condemned the violent attack on Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic yesterday in Srebrenica...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed 617 ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. The situation around Shyrokyne was relatively calm. The SMM continued to facilitate repairs at a major water pipeline between Maiorsk and Horlivka...

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek signed long-term bilateral agreements on cooperation in the sphere of combating terrorism and arms control with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defence and the Kyrgyz National Guard on July 10, 2015...

HELSINKI, 10 July 2015 – High-level representatives of governments from OSCE participating States and their Mediterranean and Asian Partners for Co-operation gathered today in Helsinki to mark the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*; persistent jamming of SMM UAVs over “DPR”-controlled areas was during the reporting period a major hindrance to monitoring in those areas. The SMM continued to observe ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. The situation was calm in and around Shyrokyne. The Luhansk region remained largely calm although the SMM noted indications of recent fighting...

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 10 July 2015 – The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Ambassador Jean-Claude Schlumberger, today condemned two incidents affecting the Kosovo Serb community in the village of Goraždevac/Gorazhdevc in Pejë/Peć municipality...

HELSINKI, 10 July 2015 – Members of the OSCE Troika, represented by the current and previous Chairpersons-in-Office- Ivica Dačić, Serbia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Didier Burkhalter, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, and the Special Representative of the incoming Chairmanship, Gernot Erler of Germany, met today on the margins of the OSCE Informal High-Level Meeting commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act. The members of the Troika were also received by the Finnish President Sauli Niinistö...

WARSAW, 10 July 2015 – Michael Georg Link, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today called on governments to support the work of independent observers to strengthen the electoral process. OSCE participating States have recognized election observation’s important role in promoting transparency and accountability, as well as enhancing public confidence in elections...

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan,10 July 2015 – An OSCE-supported conference on the next steps in the local self-governance reform took placed today in Shymkent, south Kazakhstan...

DUSHANBE, 10 July 2015 – An eight-day regional advanced explosive ordnance disposal level three course for Central Asian trainees facilitated by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan concluded in Dushanbe today...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 10 July 2015 – A three-day regional training workshop on gender mainstreaming and conflict resolution in water governance, jointly organised by the OSCE Gender Section and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) in co-operation with the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), concluded in Almaty today...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed a sharp increase of ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. The situation around Shyrokyne was calm. The SMM continued to facilitate demining and repairs at a major water pipeline between Maiorsk and Horlivka.

JERMUK, VAYOTS DZOR REGION, Armenia, 9 July 2015 – Twenty-five of Armenia’s military police officers took part in a three-day training course on human rights organized by the NGO Protection of Rights without Borders, with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan and in co-operation with Armenia’s Ministry of Defence...

HELSINKI, 9 July 2015 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has adopted the 2015 Helsinki Declaration, containing the Assembly’s wide-ranging policy recommendations and pronouncements for the OSCE and its 57 participating States in the fields of political affairs and security, economics, the environment and human rights...

KYIV, 9 July 2015 – The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) facilitated today the launch of the Parliament-Civil Society Platform – a forum for an inclusive national dialogue, public debate, and dissemination of information on Ukraine’s reform agenda...

VIENNA, 9 July 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today welcomed a recent decision in Lithuania to repeal criminal laws on insults, including provisions on special protection of public figures from insult...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM continued to observe ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. The SMM assessed damage in a number of places following shelling incidents.

CHISINAU, 8 July 2015 – The Special Representative of the Serbian OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian settlement process, Ambassador Radojko Bogojević, today concluded his second visit to the region in one week, following on from a visit to Chisinau on 30 June...

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek in co-operation with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior conducted two one-day training sessions for media representatives on journalists’ safety during reporting on political and social unrest. The trainings were held on 6 July in Bishkek and on 7 July in Osh...

A two-day training seminar on intellectual property rights for customs officers related to Kazakhstan’s forthcoming accession to the World Trade Organization concluded on 8 July 2015 in Astana, Kazakhstan...

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek and the Central Election Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic organized a roundtable on 7 July to discuss issues related to the inclusion of citizens who are in remand prisons, detention facilities, psychiatric hospitals, social institutions, and military service into the voters’ list for the upcoming parliamentary elections...

The OSCE Centre in Bishkek and State Border Service of the Kyrgyz Republic organized a two-day communication training for the leadership of the State Border Service and heads of military units to improve their professional capacity and knowledge in communications techniques. Its aim is to establish a unified coordination information policy on border security. The training was held in the city of Osh on 3-4 July 2015...

Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both BCPs. The overall cross-border traffic increased at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs).

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM continued to observe ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport. The situation around Shyrokyne was calm. The SMM continued to facilitate demining and repairs at a major water pipeline between Maiorsk and Horlivka.

HELSINKI, 7 July 2015 – Parliamentary debate on political affairs, economic and environmental issues and human rights concerns is well under way at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Annual Session in Helsinki...

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors, in co‑operation with the Ministry of Education and Science and UNICEF in Kyrgyzstan, is holding a regional summer school on “Multilingual and Multicultural Education for Integration” from 6 to 11 July 2015 in Cholpon Ata. A total of 75

VIENNA, 7 July 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today warned about the possible implications for freedom of information and freedom of the media on the Internet, following a decision by the French data protection authority (CNIL) to order the search engine Google to apply delisting requests on all its domain names...

PODGORICA, 7 July 2015 – Speaking at the end of her two-day visit to Montenegro, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović welcomed the new draft Code of Ethics for Montenegrin journalists. In her meeting on 6 July with Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, the Representative also stressed measures to strengthen media self-regulation and the fight to end impunity for attacks against journalists in the country...

ALMATY, 7 July 2015 – The annual OSCE Central Asian Youth Network (CAYN) forum and seminar began today in Almaty.

THE HAGUE, 7 July 2015 – OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors assessed the situation of national minorities and internally displaced people (IDPs) in western Ukraine during a visit to Uzhhorod, Mukacheve, Berehove and Lviv from 29 June to 3 July...

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed a lower number of incidents at and around the Donetsk airport on 5 July, as compared to previous days. The SMM brokered a ceasefire, paving the way for demining and repair works on a water pipeline near the line of contact, between Maiorsk and Horlivka. The SMM visited Shyrokyne, confirming the withdrawal of “DPR” forces and severe destruction, especially in the southern part of the village.

A series of lectures, familiarization visits and expert meetings on various issues of democracy were held on 29 June to 4 July 2015 for 20 high school students from across Armenia as part of the Summer School on Democracy organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan...

Protecting groups vulnerable to human trafficking along migration routes and in destination countries is the focus of the 2015 Alliance conference, where during the next two days leading experts are looking for new ways to assist at-risk migrants...

PLEASE FIND BELOW THE CORRECT VERSION OF THE PRESS RELEASE. WARSAW, 6 July 2015 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today congratulated Italy’s Roberto Montella on his election as Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA).

DOMODEDOVO, Russia, 6 July 2014- Eleven Afghan law enforcement trainers from the Ministry of Interior completed the train-the-trainers course near Moscow today on combatting illicit drug trafficking and drug-related crimes...

HELSINKI, 6 July 2015 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s International Secretariat has released the Final Report of its Helsinki +40 Project, presenting concrete proposals for reforming the OSCE to ensure its relevance and efficiency in the years ahead...

The government of Sweden on 6 July 2015 has appointed its conciliators, the arbitrator and its alternate for a new mandate of six years, in accordance with articles 3 and 4 of the Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE...