News and press releases

In line with its mandate to promote the independence, impartiality and accountability of the justice system, on 8 October 2014, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo has launched Justice Monitor, a new bi-annual publication presenting qualitative performance indicators for first instance courts in Kosovo. It is the first time this kind of data relating to courts in Kosovo has been compiled...

OHRID, 8 October 2014 – A two-day regional roundtable discussion on co-operation between law enforcement and forensic officers on illicit drug investigations in South-Eastern Europe, started today in Ohrid...

BISHKEK, 8 October 2014 – The OSCE Centre in Bishkek is supporting local human rights organization Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan in hosting the four-day Eighth International Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights, which launched on Tuesday in Bishkek...

Focusing on the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, the SMM continued monitoring the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, still noting that violence is continuing in a number of places.

MONTREAL, 9 October 2014 – An OSCE-organized study visit to the 10th Symposium and Exhibition on Machine Readable Travel Documents, Biometrics and Border Security at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal for representatives of four Turkmenistan document issuance and passport control agencies concluded today.

VIENNA, 7 October 2014 – Following the blocking of a large number of websites and social media platforms in Tajikistan including Vkontakte, YouTube and Facebook, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today called on the authorities to ensure unrestricted access to the Internet...

OSCE participating States are responding to threats from extremists by creating laws that include provisions which might seriously limit free expression and free media online and offline...

BOROVOE, Kazakhstan, 7 October 2014 – More than 30 representatives of Aarhus Centres from across the country, the Energy Ministry, the Supreme Court as well as civil society took part in a two-day workshop, which concluded today in Borovoe...

Focusing on the implementation of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, the SMM continued monitoring the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions where shelling continued to take place. The situation in the other regions of Ukraine remained calm.

A draft manual supported by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator on how media professionals can take a gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory approach in their reporting is now open to suggestions and feedback from journalists, civil society and academia, before it is published later this year...

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors addressed the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Autumn Meeting in Geneva on 3 October 2014, and participated in the debate on Ukraine...

SOFIA, 6 October 2014 – Although Bulgaria’s early parliamentary elections on 5 October were well administered technically and fundamental freedoms were respected, allegations from all sides of vote buying and selling and other election irregularities, as well as a campaign that lacked substance continued to negatively affect public confidence in the integrity of the process, international observers said in a statement issued today...

Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Ambassador Janina Hrebickova signed on 26 September 2014 a Memorandum of Understanding on further co-operation with the Gender Equality Department of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, and the Municipality of Rozaje to promote women’s participation in public and political life...

GENEVA, 5 October 2014 – Human rights and humanitarian issues were the focus of presentations and parliamentary debate on the final day of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 2014 Autumn Meeting in Geneva...

KYIV, 4 October 2014- The Trilateral Contact Group of senior representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office held a meeting in Kyiv on 2 October 2014, to discuss further steps towards the implementation of the Peace Plan of the President of Ukraine.

GENEVA, 4 October 2014 – Climate change and the connections between environment and technology took center stage on day two of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Autumn Meeting, which has brought together some 200 parliamentarians from more than 50 nations in Geneva this week...

In the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and in particular in the city of Donetsk and its surroundings, the situation remained tense. Displacement continued in the rest of the country.

GENEVA, 3 October 2014 – OSCE parliamentarians from three continents engaged in a wide-ranging and at times emotional debate on the continuing crisis in Ukraine during the opening day of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Autumn Meeting in Geneva...

In the city of Donetsk and its surroundings, the overall security situation is deteriorating. An ICRC staff member was killed as a result of heavy shelling...

GENEVA, 3 October 2014 –The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 2014 Autumn Meeting has opened in Geneva, with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter urging some 200 parliamentarians from more than 50 nations to support the “very fragile shift” from “a military to a political logic in the Ukraine crisis.”...

KYIV, 3 October 2014- The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMMU) acknowledges that a breach of its own internal security regulations occurred in early September 2014 in Donetsk city involving one of our vehicles. The SMMU regrets the incident where two uniformed individuals boarded our vehicle. We have also undertaken all measures to prevent such a regrettable incident from occurring again.

VILNIUS, 3 October 2014 – Five journalists from Turkmenistan’s print and online media discussed modern journalism practices on an OSCE-organized study visit to the Republic of Lithuania which concluded today in Vilnius...

A regional workshop designed to build the capacity of customs authorities in detecting the illegal trafficking of hazardous waste, pesticides, ozone-depleting substances and endangered plants and animals, was co-organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine on 30 September and 1 October 2014...

GENEVA, 3 October 2014- Didier Burkhalter, Swiss Foreign Minister and Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, gave an opening address to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which is meeting in Geneva for its autumn session this weekend. Recalling that the ‘Helsinki Final Act’ was negotiated in the very same conference building in Geneva four decades ago, he argued that the vision and determination of the CSCE founding fathers should be an inspiration to all to embark on collective efforts to overcome the current crisis of European security...

VIENNA, 3 October 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today welcomed the ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court to decrease the power of the country’s telecommunications authority, TİB, in blocking websites and monitoring Internet users...

On occasion of the International Right to Know Day, Ambassador Peter Burkhard, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, collected an award from the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Protection of Personal Data Rodoljub Sabic, on 29 September 2014, for the Mission’s contribution to promoting the right of free access to information of public importance in Serbia...

An ICRC staff member – a Swiss national – was killed in shelling whilst apparently standing outside the front door of the ICRC office in Donetsk city on 2 October...

Good practices and strategies for supporting women candidates running for local office in Hungary were the focus of a seminar in Budapest on 3 October 2014.

BERN, 2 October 2014 – Appalled by the killing of ten persons in a school during shelling yesterday in Donetsk, and by the violent death of a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation today, Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Didier Burkhalter, urged all sides to immediately stop fighting, to strictly observe the ceasefire and to implement the measures agreed upon in the Minsk Protocol of September 5 and the related Memorandum of September 19. He expressed his condolences to the families of the many men, women and children who lost their lives due to the violent conflict...

THE HAGUE, 2 October 2014 – Spravedlivost, a Kyrgyzstan-based NGO, was today presented with the Max van der Stoel Award for its work to improve the position of national minorities in the OCSE area...

In Donetsk city shelling on a residential area caused civilian casualties near a school.

DUSHANBE, 2 October 2014 – The delegation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) headed by the Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha visited the OSCE Border Management College yesterday in Dushanbe...

YEREVAN, 2 October 2014 – The “Region” Research Centre of Armenia, supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan, today presented the results of a survey on how Armenian journalists use information from social media...

On 29 and 30 September 2014, in Prishtinë/Priština, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo held the first in a series of five workshops for ten local NGOs on monitoring the performance of election management bodies...

The SMM continued to monitor the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions focusing on the implementation of the Minsk Protocol/Memorandum. In the city of Donetsk and surrounding areas, the overall situation was generally tense...

BISHKEK, 1 October 2014 – The Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy, supported by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and implemented by ecological movement ‘BIOM’, gathered some 60 representatives from Talas and Issyk-Kul province, district administrators and the Ministry’s officials for a one-day workshop to discuss strategic planning for sustainable development at the local level, today in Bishkek...

KAMENSK-SHAKHTINSKY, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) is operating at full capacity. Cross-border traffic flows remained steady at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs) and the total number of border-crossings has slightly increased. Similar to the previous week, more people left the Russian Federation (RF) for Ukraine at the two observed BCPs. Regular local and long-distance bus connections are now operating between cities in the RF and the Luhansk region. The OM observed again considerable numbers of persons in camouflage clothing crossing the border...

How can States, policy-makers and educators find an appropriate balance between protecting identity and promoting integration in schools? This question was the focus of a side event organized by the office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting on 29 September 2014...

VIENNA, 1 October 2014 – Three-day workshop on Cross-Border Co-operation against Corruption and Money Laundering involving officials from OSCE participating States in Central Asia, South Caucasus and Eastern Europe as well as international experts started today in Vienna...

More than 450 administrative and local court judges from all over Ukraine were trained to review election-related disputes at a series of seminars held from 17 September to 1 October 2014 by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine...

COPENHAGEN, 1 October 2014 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 2014 Autumn Meeting, bringing together more than 450 participants from more than 50 countries, opens Friday, 3 October in Geneva, Switzerland...

DILIJAN, Tavush province of Armenia, 1 October 2014 – Around 30 Armenian Armed Forces personnel will participate in an OSCE-supported human rights training course which started today in Dilijan...

The SMM continued to monitor the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions focusing on the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol/Memorandum. While the situation remained calm in the Luhansk region, the SMM observed ongoing fighting at Donetsk International airport and heard sporadic shelling in Donetsk northern sectors (Avdiivka). The SMM also heard artillery and mortar fire in the north-eastern sectors of Mariupol (Sartana and Oktaybr). The SMM monitored a simultaneous release of prisoners between the Ukrainian forces and representatives of “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”). In Kharkiv the situation remained calm in the hours which followed the toppling of the local Lenin statue.

In a keynote speech opening the 80th PEN International Congress in Bishkek, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, emphasized free media and free expression as vital instruments for a secure and peaceful world...

SARAJEVO, 30 September 2014- The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Gender Centre of the Government of the Federation of BiH launched a short video today to highlight the urgent need for women to have stronger representation in political life.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) released two publications to assist OSCE participating States in addressing issues of hate crimes on 30 September 2014, during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw.

The Swedish government’s efforts to address challenges that Roma in the country face were the focus of an event organized on 30 September 2014 by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Government of Sweden during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw.

BISHKEK, 30 September 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today called on the Armenian authorities to bring to justice those responsible for attacks on journalists and to end the climate of impunity following another case of the obstruction of a journalist’s work in Yerevan...

A seminar “Priorities and Responsibilities in Fostering Police Integrity in Montenegro” was held in the Podgorica on 25 September 2014.

The new water supply system for Isfana city, Batken region, opened on 29 September 2014. As of yesterday, over 1,400 households have access to clean drinking water...