News and press releases

KYIV, 14 June 2013 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara received today the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and Ian Kelly of the United States as well as the Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office on the conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk...

ANANYEVO, Kyrgyzstan, 14 June 2013 – A farm in a settlement colony in Kyrgyzstan was officially launched today in the Colony 44 in the village of Ananyevo in Issyk-Kul region of the country...

SARAJEVO, 14 June 2013- The Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fletcher M. Burton, today welcomed that a short-term solution was found to enable a three-month BiH-born girl to be transported to a clinic in Germany for urgent medical treatment. He urged Parliamentarians to reach a compromise solution on the Single Reference Number for all new-borns in the country which would allow the children to be issued identity documents...

Civil rights activists, government officials, media and civil society representatives were recognized for their contribution to promoting human rights in Armenia at an event co-organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan on 13 June 2013...

YEREVAN, 14 June 2013 – Third party submissions in constitutional and international human rights procedures, and the enforcement of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments will be discussed at a two-day workshop organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan together with the Armenian Chamber of Advocates that started in Yerevan today...

The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, at a workshop in Kyiv held from 12 to 13 June 2013 urged the Organization’s participating States to take concrete steps to prevent the little-known phenomenon of trafficking for domestic servitude in diplomatic households...

BERLIN, 13 June 2013 – Violent attacks and threats motivated by anti-Semitism affect the day-to-day lives of Jewish communities all across the OSCE region, and these communities are in need of protection from these threats and the harmful impact they have on their religious and cultural activities and on their human rights, said participants at an expert OSCE conference in Berlin today...

A team from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) visited Vilnius from 11 to 13 June 2013 to present the final report of the Election Assessment Mission for last year’s parliamentary elections in Lithuania...

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, told participating States on 13 June 2013 in Vienna that political will needs to be mustered to fulfil commitments on Internet freedom and journalists’ safety...

Fourteen future teachers received certificates after completing a training course supported by the OSCE Mission to Skopje at a ceremony on 13 June 2013 in country’s eastern city of Shtip...

VIENNA, 12 June 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, warned today that the closure of Greece’s public service broadcaster, ERT, could deprive citizens of a diversity of views, and it creates economic hardship for the dismissed journalists...

How to further develop the constitutional protection of human rights in Montenegro was the topic of an OSCE-supported conference held in Bečići on the 10-11 June 2013...

Several court monitoring reports were presented at a conference in Montenegro on 10 June 2013...

A new project to promote the effective protection of human rights defenders through the development of recommendations for governments was launched by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at a two-day expert meeting in Warsaw on 10 and 11 June 2013...

The concept and evolution of security sector reform are key themes of an OSCE-supported training course launched on 11 June 2013 in Yerevan...

On the 12th anniversary of the murder of prominent Serbian journalist Milan Pantić, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, has called on Serbia’s authorities to step up their efforts in investigating this and other journalist killings...

OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier visited Kyiv from 10 to 11 June 2013 where he met with President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara...

KYIV, 10 June 2013 – Ways to strengthen the OSCE participating States’ response to human trafficking in terms of the prevention of the crime, prosecution of offenders and protection of victims are the focus of a high-level conference that started in Kyiv today...

A ceremony at the Water museum in Bishkek took place in Bishkek on 7 June 2013, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University’s (KNAU). The popular science museum will be officially opened to the public in September 2013 and will be hosted by the KNAU’s former laboratory building. It will be the country’s only museum educating people on water and its effective use...

CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine, 10 June 2013- The OSCE Project Co-ordinator and Ukraine’s State Registration Service launched today a series of six regional information seminars to familiarize public servants and third sector activists with new registration procedures for civil society organizations...

Training seminars for Ukraine’s newly appointed administrative court judges started in Kyiv on 10 June 2013 with the support of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU)...

The quality control of motor oil and fuel depends on the full implementation of the Montenegro’s National Strategy for Air Quality Management and its Law on Energy. This was the conclusion of a roundtable discussion hosted by the School of Ecological Activism in Podgorica on 6 June 2013...

Challenges of online media and prospects for the development of online media self-regulation in Armenia were discussed at a two-day workshop on 8 and 9 June 2013 in Aghveran, a town located in Armenia’s Kotayk province...

A training course for special police forces on hostage rescue operations is taking place in Skopje from 10 to 14 June 2013. Experts from the French National Police will train 18 members of the Special Tasks Unit on how to deal with rescue situations in different types of locations and what to do to intercept vehicles used by armed criminals...

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Jennifer Brush, travelled to the town of Soroca in the north of the country on 5 June 2013 to get acquainted with the situation of the region and discuss decentralization and Roma rights...

ASTANA, 7 June 2013 – An OSCE-supported international conference aimed at enhancing the political party system and the work of parliamentary factions in Kazakhstan was held in Astana today...

A two-week annual security policy course concluded in Sarajevo on 6 June 2013. It was organized by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Security and Inter-ministerial Working Group for Monitoring of the Implementation of BiH Security Policy...

COLOGNE/STRASBOURG, 6 June 2013- The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, expressed serious concern today at the promulgation by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, of amendments extending the application of criminal defamation provisions to online expression on 4 June 2013...

COLOGNE, Germany, 6 June 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, expressed today concern about police treatment of the media covering demonstrations in Frankfurt...

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, 6 June 2013 – The growing trend of early and non-registered marriages, early motherhood and gender-based violence in Kyrgyzstan topped the agenda of a roundtable discussion that took place in Osh today...

VIENNA, 6 June 2013 – While the mandates and composition of OSCE and Council of Europe are different, co-operation can give political impetus and create synergies on the ground, the Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in a speech to the representatives of the 57 OSCE participating States today. In May, Armenia took over the six-month long chairmanship of the Council of Europe...

SARAJEVO, 6 June 2013 – As part of the observance of World Environment Day, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina honoured the five winners of a competition for journalists reporting on environmental issues in Sarajevo yesterday...

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, held on 5 June 2013 a roundtable meeting in Sarajevo on the implementation of preventive aspects of the International Terrorist Bombings Convention...

The co-operation between state and non-state actors in implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was the topic of an OSCE-supported conference held in Podgorica on 4 June 2013...

YEREVAN, 5 June 2013 – Participants of a two-month police teacher-training course provided with the OSCE support were awarded certificates today at a graduation ceremony in Yerevan...

MINSK, 5 June 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, welcomed today at the end of a three-day official visit to Belarus the readiness of the authorities to intensify dialogue and co-operation with her office on much needed improvement of the media freedom situation...

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine joined the country’s Justice Ministry and the Co-ordination Council of Young Lawyers of Ukraine in an award ceremony for the winners of a children drawing contest on human rights. The award ceremony took place on 1 June 2013 to mark the International Day of the Protection of Children...

KYIV, 5 June 2013 – On the occasion of World Environment Day, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, calls for greater attention to the safety of food and energy sources. This year, World Environment Day runs under the umbrella of the ‘Think.Eat.Save.’ campaign, which encourages people to stop wasting food and help keep the world’s natural resources safe...

MINSK, 4 June 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, today expressed concern that draft amendments to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information of Bosnia and Herzegovina would curtail access to information...

Some 30 police officers, civil society members and international community representatives met on 4 June 2013 in Yerevan to talk about ways how to reform Armenia’s public order management, in particular in the area of street patrolling and policing of public events...

Greater co-operation between civil society, law enforcement agencies and government institutions is needed to improve responses to hate-motivated crimes against people with disabilities, participants said at a regional seminar co-organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Oslo on 4 June 2013...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 4 June 2013 – A four-day training seminar on detection of drugs in trains and other means of large-scale transport began today in Almaty...

TASHKENT, 4 June 2013 – An OSCE-organized training course for criminal police started in Tashkent today...

SARAJEVO, 3 June 2013 – The Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fletcher M. Burton, welcomed today the signing of a protocol between the State Attorney's Office of Croatia and the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina on co-operation in the prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide...

Malta’s parliamentary elections on 9 March 2013 were administered professionally and enjoyed a high degree of public trust but aspects of the legal framework could benefit from further review, concludes the final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)...

Good practices in advancing gender equality and women’s participation in politics was the focus of a training session for Tunisian women politicians in Tunis on 2 and 3 June 2013, for which the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) provided expertise...

DUSHANBE, 3 June 2013 – The 8th Staff Course for senior border officials opened today at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe...

VIENNA, 1 June 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, today expressed concern over police treatment of the media covering the ongoing demonstrations in Istanbul...

The OSCE Mission to Skopje and the French Embassy in Skopje organized a course on conducting drug searches for eight police officers from a local K9 Unit, as well as their dogs, on 27-31 May 2013...

VIENNA, 31 May 2013 – The detention of a journalist in Skopje for an article published several years ago is excessive and negatively impacts media freedom, said OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today.