News and press releases

From 16 to 18 November, over 55 experts from Central Asia and Mongolia gathered in Tashkent to discuss how to better protect vulnerable targets, such as critical infrastructure and soft targets, from terrorist attacks. The event was an opportunity to enhance the preparedness of participating States and provide a platform for dialogue on cross-border infrastructure protection.

To help address issues of gender inequality in the justice system, the OSCE Mission to Skopje recently published a baseline study on Gender and Diversity in the Judiciary. “Only a transparent and inclusive judiciary can enjoy the trust and support of the citizens, which will enable it to perform

From 14 to 18 November, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in close co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, organized a course on handling digital evidence by first responders at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic.

On 16 November, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) conducted an awareness-raising event on the benefits of the Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) model at national and regional levels for senior managers (one woman, 14 men) of Georgian law enforcement authorities. This event was organized in close co-operation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

Together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the OSCE Transnational Threats Department's Border Security and Management Unit (TNTD/BSMU) organized a two-day regional training on gender mainstreaming in border and law enforcement agencies that concluded today in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Promoting policies to facilitate the integration of diverse societies and the inclusion of all social groups is one of the most effective ways to prevent conflicts, said OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov in his keynote address to the conference “'Together or

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov underlined his continued good co-operation with the Lithuanian authorities during his visit to the country on 7 and 8 November 2022. He met with Education, Science and Sports Minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė, Justice Minister Ewelina

WARSAW, 16 November 2022 – As it launches its hate crime dataset on today’s International Day for Tolerance, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) called on states to deepen their cooperation with civil society organizations working to counter hate and make a greater effort to support victims.

An opinion poll conducted in Montenegro found that 85 per cent of respondents perceive psychological violence against women and girls as being either very common or at least occurring in individual cases. A third of women respondents personally experienced at least one form of psychological violence and over 44.1 per cent of respondents believe this to be the most common form of violence in intimate (partner) and family relationships.

WARSAW/VIENNA, 16 November 2022- As the Personal Representatives of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office tasked with addressing tolerance issues, we are cognizant of the enormous challenges that we face on this International Day of Tolerance.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) in co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the NGO “Legal Problems Research Center”, and the Tashkent State University of Law held an international conference on 15 November in Tashkent.

A Regional Conference on the investigation and adjudication of organized crime and corruption, gathering 45 justice sector stakeholders from across the region, as part of the OSCE Regional Trial Monitoring Project, opened on 15 November in Budva, Montenegro.

To teach schoolchildren about the importance of cultural and religious heritage, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo organized visits for over 130 elementary school pupils and their teachers to four sites in Prizren. The aim of the visits was to increase the knowledge of schoolchildren from different

To promote investigative journalism and help media professionals hone their digital investigative skills so they can conduct more thorough research to bring the facts to light, the OSCE Mission to Skopje launched an e-learning course on 15 November 2022. This e-learning course provides a toolbox

Vienna, 15 November – The development of women’s entrepreneurial skills and equal opportunity for participation in the labour market, the effective participation of women in decision-making processes in the economic and environmental spheres and enhancing women’s leadership role in the OSCE region were among the themes discussed yesterdayat the OSCE’s Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation Meeting (EEDIM).

On 15 November 2022, the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department held a workshop in Sarajevo dedicated to updating the curriculum for law enforcement on gender-based violence (GBV).

VIENNA, 14 November 2022- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro visited Malta from 9 to 11 November 2022 to discuss a broad array of media freedom issues with government authorities and civil society.

On November 10 and 11, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducted a two-day workshop for representatives of relevant Ukrainian agencies to share best practices in implementation of international standards in regulating the virtual assets market.

The OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department held a workshop dedicated to updating the curriculum on gender-based violence for law enforcement in Banja Luka on 14 November, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska.

New skills acquired in translating project ideas into proposals to respond to Regional Youth Co-operation Office (RYCO) open call for proposals was the outcome of a three-day training course on project writing, organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the RYCO local branch office in Budva from 8 to 11 November.

From 8 to 11 November, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized a course on requesting electronic evidence across borders in Kosshy, in close co-operation with the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, the UNODC and the Law Enforcement Academy under the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

LONDON/EDINBURGH, 11 November 2022 – Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, concluded his five-day visit to the United Kingdom today. While highlighting the UK’s rich history at the vanguard of global anti-trafficking effort, including its pioneering Modern Slavery Act, he expressed concern that a stalled anti-slavery agenda risked undermining past achievements.

The benefits and challenges of the functioning of free economic zones (FEZ) were addressed at an OSCE-organized seminar that took place on 10 and 11 November 2022 in Ashgabat. The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat organized the two-day event to support the host country’s efforts aimed at enhancing an

From 7 to 10 November, 21 criminal justice practitioners from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine gathered in Dubrovnik for a training course on mutual legal assistance and international co-operation in asset recovery.

Ambassador Brian Aggeler, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, visited Mostar today where he met with the Mission’s counterparts in the city administration, Mayor Mario Kordić and Mostar City Council Speaker Salem Marić.

ERGNETI, 10 November 2022- The 109th Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) was held in Ergneti today, under the co-facilitation of Ambassador Marek Szczygieł, Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) and Ambassador Viorel Moşanu, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus.

On 10 November 2022, the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department held a national workshop dedicated to updating the national curriculum for law enforcement on gender-based violence (GBV) in Belgrade. This is the second workshop organized at the national level within the project “Enhancing Criminal Justice Capacities for Combating Gender-based Violence in South-Eastern Europe”, and it was accomplished with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Serbian Ministry of Interior.

Elections experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented the final report of ODIHR’s Election Observation Mission to the November 2021 parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan on 28 October 2022. The experts discussed the report’s findings and

WASHINGTON DC, 9 November 2022 – The 8 November mid-term congressional elections were competitive and professionally managed, with active voter participation, but also with threats against election workers and efforts to undermine voters’ trust in the electoral process by baselessly questioning its integrity, international observers said in a statement released today. Candidates could campaign freely, but many contests were highly polarized and marred by harsh rhetoric, and partisan redistricting resulted in many instances of uncompetitive constituencies, the statement says.

From 8 to 10 November, 55 representatives of relevant ministries and state agencies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as well as representatives of international organizations took part in the peer-review meeting in Istanbul on the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR1540) on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and means of their delivery.

The parties to the Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, under the chairmanship of  Serbia, held the XIII Review Conference on the Implementation of the Dayton Article IV Agreement on 8 November 2022.

On 8 November, the OSCE Gender Issues Programme, in partnership with the Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) Network, launched a new toolkit aimed at supporting women’s specialist services and civil society organizations involved in supporting women survivors of violence in conflict and post-conflict settings.

On 5 and 6 November 2022, a group of four Permanent Representatives to the OSCE visited Tajikistan to reconfirm their strong support for strengthening the OSCE’s co-operation with Tajikistan.

SARAJEVO, 8 November 2022- Today, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina announced the winners of the “Proud of Our School” competition launched in April 2022. The Mission invited schools across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to share their best practices that promote inclusivity, foster well-being and effective learning, and encourage students and parents to participate in school life.

On 4 and 5 November 2022 on the Ohrid Lake, North Macedonia, the Regional Ideathon organized by the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities gathered seventy young people aged 18-25 from the  Western Balkans’ region. Under the motto “Inspire, Connect, Enable”, the Ideathon is a creative problem solving exercise where youth come together and, guided by innovative start-uppers, dive into a social or an environmental challenge and consider possible solutions with the use of technology.

VIENNA, 7 November 2022 – The OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid visited Oslo from 3 to 4 November to meet with Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt and other officials to discuss issues in the OSCE region including the energy crisis, the security impacts of climate change, and the ongoing war against Ukraine.

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) organized two events from 1 to 4 November 2022 focused on supporting States in implementing passenger data programmes, enhancing coordination between participating States, international organizations, and private sector companies, and deepening regional cooperative partnerships.

Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Ambassador Brian Aggeler, visited Travnik today.

VIENNA, 4 November 2022 – Over the past six months, we have witnessed the sharpest deterioration of media freedom since the establishment of the mandate of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) 25 years ago; no one can afford to look away, not to act and not to stand up.

On 2 and 3 November 2022, over 70 participants representing a diverse group of stakeholders from the four protected areas of Korab-Koritnik, Mavrovo, Shar Mountain and Sharri/Šara convened for a workshop in Mavrovo, North Macedonia, to discuss a shared vision to reduce climate-related security risks and identify joint projects and co-operation formats.

Election experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented the final report on Georgia’s 2021 local elections during a visit to Tbilisi that took place from 31 October to 3 November 2022.

On 2 November, OSCE concluded the series of national workshops in Montenegro on social re-use of confiscated illicit assets. The event highlighted the key role civil society organizations play in the fight against organized crime and corruption. It also raised the awareness on the possibility to assign assets confiscated from criminal groups to civil society, contributing thus to social, cultural and socio-entrepreneurial activities and reintegrating confiscated illicit assets into communities and the legal economy.

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov visited the Republic of Serbia from 24 to 29 October 2022. In Belgrade, he met with the President of the National Assembly Vladimir Orlić, President of the Government Ana Brnabić, Minister of Education Branko Ružić, Commissioner for

As part of the Cybersecurity Awareness Month, from 19 October to 2 November 2022, the OSCE Presence in Albania reached out to children, parents, teachers, school psychologists and social workers to increase community awareness on cyber threats. The information sessions, which took place in Korça,

On 2 November, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in close co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, organized a second webinar for cadets and lecturers from the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. The purpose of this initiative is to raise awareness about key trends and developments in contemporary policing among students and staff of the Academy.

VIENNA, 2 November 2022 – "Can there be security without media freedom?" That is the title of the report that Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro launched today, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the mandate of the OSCE RFoM.

WARSAW/VIENNA, 1 November 2022 – Today a new donor-funded Support Programme for Ukraine (SPU) was launched by contributing OSCE participating States. The Support Programme addresses some of the immediate challenges to civilians posed by the war waged against Ukraine and supports the long-term democratic and social resilience of Ukrainian institutions and civil society organizations.

Eleven journalists covering parliamentary affairs from different media outlets in Albania and staff of the Communication Service of the Assembly of Albania traveled to Ljubljana, from 27 to 29 October, to share experiences with their Slovenian counterparts and learn from their best practices. The

Ambassador Brian Aggeler, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), visited Foča today. The visit served as an opportunity for Ambassador Aggeler to meet key local counterparts. On this occasion, he met with Miralem Hodžić, the Main Imam of Foča, to discuss opportunities for fostering inter-religious dialogue while also visiting the historic Aladža mosque complex. Ambassador Aggeler also met with Milan Vukadinoviċ, Mayor of Foča, Srđan Draškoviċ, Municipal Assembly Speaker and Izet Spahić, Municipal Assembly Councilor to discuss topics that impact all citizens of Foča. “I am glad to be here today and to have an opportunity to discuss local developments with a focus on human rights and trust-building. On the topic of trust-building: the Upper Drina Initiative is a brilliant step towards sustainable cross-entity co-operation. We expect to see more positive developments in the future that will be in the best interest of all citizens of Foča. Indeed, the Mission will continue to support the efforts of the authorities in Foča in achieving that,” said Ambassador Aggeler. Ambassador Aggeler concluded his first official visit to Foča by meeting Jelena Vilotić, President of NGO “Tračak nade.” “I am impressed with the work of this service center and with the passion and dedication of people working here. Their tireless efforts to improve living conditions for the most vulnerable in society bring hope in a better future,” concluded Aggeler.

Almost thirty representatives of the Moldovan ombudsperson’s (People’s Advocate) institution participated in a two-day human rights webinar, organized by the OSCE Mission to Moldova on 25 and 26 October 2022. The participants discussed the institution’s possibilities to increase efficiency of their