News and press releases

VIENNA, 2 March 2017 – Statelessness, a human rights and security issue affecting hundreds of thousands of people across the OSCE region according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is the focus of a new handbook of international standards and good practices launched in Vienna today by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the UNHCR...

VIENNA, 10 November 2016 – Promoting greater attention to the positive potential of national minorities for societies and states was a core theme of speakers at the opening of a two-day OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM) held in Vienna today, entitled “National Minorities, Bridge Building and Integration"...

STRASBOURG, France, 14 October 2016 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in an address on Thursday to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council in Europe in Strasbourg, underlined the important role that the Council of Europe plays in addressing many of the serious security challenges in Europe, thus highlighting the strong potential for dialogue and co-operation between the OSCE and the Council of Europe...

The current and potential role of OSCE structures in assisting its 57 participating States to implement their obligations and OSCE commitments in ensuring the full rehabilitation of torture victims was the focus of a workshop held in Vienna on 12 October 2016. The event was organized by the OSCE

WARSAW/BERLIN, 7 October 2016 –Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Gernot Erler, Special Representative of the German OSCE Chairmanship expressed their concern that the human rights group International Historical, Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society “Memorial” was named a “foreign agent” by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation earlier this week...

WARSAW, 30 September 2016 – The free and open exchange of views and information is vital to helping governments protect and promote human rights, fundamental freedoms and tolerance and non-discrimination, as well as to improve and strengthen democratic practices and institutions, Gernot Erler, Germany’s Special Representative for the 2016 OSCE Chairmanship, Lamberto Zannier, OSCE Secretary General, and Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said today on the occasion of the closing of a two-week OSCE conference in Warsaw...

WARSAW, 19 September 2016- OSCE participating States must focus on their commitments to defend human rights to effectively retain real security, speakers said at the opening of the 20th OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw today...