News and press releases

VIENNA, 2 April 2014 – OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatović today condemned an apparent second arson attack on a car owned by Bulgarian television journalist Genka Shikerova and called for the end of impunity for assailants of journalists...

DUSHANBE, 2 April 2014 – The annual forum of the OSCE–Tajikistan Task Force took place today in Dushanbe, where high-ranking officials from the OSCE and the Tajik government as well as representatives of civil society highlighted their recent major achievements and identified priorities for national and regional co-operation in 2015...

A three-day training seminar on best practices in countering drug trafficking began in Almaty on 2 April 2014...

OSH, 1 April 2014 – As part of OSCE efforts to support the development of pluralistic and professional media, the OSCE Centre in Bishkek today donated computer equipment to Yntymak TV and Radio in Osh, which is the only media outlet in the southern provinces of the country broadcasting programmes in Kyrgyz, Russian and Uzbek languages...

WARSAW, 1 April 2014- The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced today that its part of the Human Rights Assessment Mission deployed at the request of the Ukrainian authorities had completed its field work...

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a memorandum of understanding on 1 April 2014 in Sarajevo with the BiH Gender Equality Agency to support a project on promoting gender equality among political parties and increasing the visibility and skills of women candidates...

The strategies and benefits of effective gender budgeting were highlighted at a training course in Podgorica on 31 March and 1 April 2014 for gender focal points from municipal authorities across Montenegro...

The strategies and benefits of effective gender budgeting were highlighted at a training course in Podgorica on 31 March and 1 April 2014 for gender focal points from municipal authorities across Montenegro...

TORONTO, 1 April 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today expressed today deep concern about the violence and intimidation by police against journalists covering the demonstrations which took place in Madrid on Saturday 29 March 2014...

TIRANA, 31 March 2014- Best practices and platforms for the training of electoral commissioners were discussed today in Tirana at a roundtable organized by the Central Election Commission (CEC) with the support of the OSCE Presence and the Council of Europe’s office in Albania. Concrete examples of electoral training centres were brought by the directors of two such structures in Georgia and Moldova.

LONDON, 28 March 2014 – The British penitentiary system and prison reform were the focus of an OSCE-supported working visit to the United Kingdom that concluded in London today...

BELGRADE, 28 March 2014 – Promoting co-operative behaviour and enhancing norms of responsible conduct in the field of defense and security throughout the OSCE region was the focus of a three-day workshop that ended today in Belgrade...

TORONTO, 28 March 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today welcomed the adoption by Verkhovna Rada of amendments to the Ukrainian legislation introducing long-awaited and competent democratic mechanisms of access to information.

KYIV, 28 March 2014 – A delegation of senior OSCE parliamentarians today completed a pre-election visit to Ukraine that featured discussions with Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov.

VIENNA, 27 March 2014 – By blocking access to social media platforms Turkey deliberately disregards the fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media said today...

VIENNA, 27 March 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today in a letter to Russian Federation Supreme Court Chair Vyacheslav Lebedev welcomed the court’s decision to reinstate Rosbalt news agency’s certificate of registration as a mass media outlet...

CHISINAU, 27 March 2014 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process Ambassador Radojko Bogojević, concluding his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol today, stressed that developments in the region should not impact the 5+2 talks on the Transdniestrian settlement...

MARY, 27 March 2014 – An OSCE-organized seminar on renewable energy took place today in Mary, eastern Turkmenistan, to boost professional contacts and exchange best practices with the aim of establishing a national Centre of Excellence on Renewable Energy...

ASTANA, 27 March 2014 – A two-day training seminar for police inspectors and officers on trends and challenges in preventing domestic violence, co-organized by the OSCE Centre with the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan, began today in Astana...

Recently politicians, lawmakers and regulators in Ukraine have expressed concern about the influence of Russian television on information security or other national interests. These concerns are often followed by actions that effectively suspend or ban all or some programmes produced in Russia. In a similar development, de facto authorities in Crimea several weeks ago abruptly and brutally switched off almost all Ukrainian television channels and replaced them with channels originating from the Russian Federation.

GENEVA, 26 March 2014- Ambassador Angelo Gnaedinger, the Special Representative of the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship for the South Caucasus, for the first time in his new role, participated in the Geneva International Discussions on 25-26 March 2014, co-chairing the meeting together with EU and UN...

A two-day specialized security policy course for ministerial officials, members of parliaments, judiciary, academia and civil society, on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Strategy for fighting corruption concluded on 26 March 2014 in Konjic...

YEREVAN, 26 March 2014 – The linkages between the environment and security and how to address challenges associated with them were the focus of a two-day OSCE workshop kicked off today for representatives of Public Environmental Information Centres (Aarhus Centres) and civil society in Armenia...

ASTANA, 26 March 2014 – A two-day OSCE-supported workshop on countering the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes began today in Astana. The workshop is co-organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, the Anti-Terrorism Centre of Kazakhstan and the OSCE Centre in Astana with support from the government of Spain...

VIENNA, 25 March 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today expressed concern about a proposed law in Belgium criminalizing certain forms of expression, most notably incitement to gender discrimination...

TASHKENT, 25 March 2014 – A three-day training course for police instructors and operational police officers on community policing started in Tashkent today...

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors announced today that the deadline for making nominations for the Max van der Stoel Award will be extended to 20 April 2014. The original deadline was 1 April...

Diving suits, hydroacousticdevices and underwater communication sets are among the equipment handed over on 21 March 2014 by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine to the national State Emergency Service in Kyiv to use for clearing the country’s coastal areas from explosive remnants of war and unsafe ammunition,as well as in other underwater rescue and humanitarian operations...

THE HAGUE, 24 March 2014- The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and James Warlick of the United States of America) met separately with President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in The Hague on March 23-24. The Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, also attended the meetings.

A survey on the awareness and implementation in Montenegrin institutions of the Law on Gender Equality was presented at a session of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality on 21 March 2014. The research was prepared by the Committee in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and the UNDP Office in Montenegro...

ERGNETI, 22 March 2014- On 21 March 2014 the 43rd meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) took place in Ergneti, co-facilitated by Toivo Klaar, the Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM), and Ambassador Angelo Gnaedinger, the OSCE Special Representative for the Southern Caucasus...

BERN, 21 March 2014 – The decision of the Permanent Council of the OSCE today to deploy a Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was welcomed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister, Didier Burkhalter.

VIENNA, 21 March 2014 – Blocking Twitter and threatening to close social media websites only adds to the many concerns about media freedom and freedom of expression in Turkey, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said today.

VIENNA, 22 March 2014- Sustainable water management is key to ensuring peace, stability and security, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said today to mark World Water Day...

The Acting Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Andrii Deshchytsia, addressed the OSCE Permanent Council on 20 March 2014 in Vienna. He focused on the situation in the country and the OSCE engagement on the ground following unilateral actions of Russia towards Crimea.

BERN, 20 March 2014- Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chair, Didier Burkhalter, emphasized the importance of various ongoing OSCE activities in order to support Ukraine to overcome the crises. At the same time, he underlined that the Organization is gradually expanding its presence on the ground...

COPENHAGEN, 20 March 2014 – OSCE parliamentarians will observe Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary elections and provide leadership for the OSCE's short-term observer mission. A pre-election visit was completed today.

CHISINAU, 20 March 2014 – Twenty-eight officers of the Moldovan armed forces today successfully completed an OSCE-supported training course on physical security and stockpile management of small arms, light weapons and conventional ammunition, in light of the introduction of new ammunition procedures in Moldova...

COPENHAGEN, 20 March 2014 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Special Representative on Border Co-operation, Ignacio Sanchez Amor (MP, Spain), has completed a study visit to the Serbian-Hungarian border.

VIENNA, 20 March 2014 – The OSCE today started to deploy a team of 15 international experts to Ukraine as part of a National Dialogue project to identify areas for further OSCE activities to support confidence-building between different parts of Ukrainian society...

More than 190 judges, prosecutors, attorneys and police officials will receive practical advanced training on particular concepts of the criminal procedure in 2014. The training, the first session of which takes place on 20 March 2014, is organized by the OSCE Mission to Skopje with the aim of strengthening the professionalism, efficiency and transparency of justice...

An OSCE-supported expert meeting on the rights of persons sentenced to life imprisonment under the new draft Criminal Executive Code of Kazakhstan took place on 20 March 2014 in Almaty...

KYIV, 20 March 2014 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today formally opened an election observation mission for the 25 May 2014 early presidential election in Ukraine. The mission’s deployment follows an invitation from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs...

COPENHAGEN, 19 March 2014 – A delegation led by senior OSCE parliamentarians will observe Ukraine’s presidential election on 25 May and provide leadership for the OSCE's short-term observer mission.

SARAJEVO, 19 March 2014 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ranko Krivokapic has said that security in South East Europe is still a "burning issue," stemming not from the threat of ethnic conflict but from incomplete democratization and organized crime.

WARSAW / STRASBOURG / VIENNA, 21 March 2014 – Political will and leadership are vital to countering racism, discrimination and hate crime, the heads of three intergovernmental human rights institutions said today in a joint statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination...

Parliamentarians and experts from a number of OSCE participating States discussed professional and ethical standards for parliamentarians, as well as the benefits of and challenges in developing codes of conduct, at a workshop organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw...

ASTANA, 19 March 2014 – An OSCE-supported conference on countering corruption in state institutions began today in Astana...

CHISINAU, 19 March 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today expressed her outrage about the attack by a group of members of the Ukrainian political party “Svoboda”, including some members of Verkhovna Rada, on the acting President of National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), forcing him to resign...

DUSHANBE, 19 March 2014 – An OSCE-supported conference on Tajikistan’s World Trade Organization’s (WTO) commitments in the field of telecommunications and broadcasting services concluded in Dushanbe at Hyatt Regency Hotel today...