News and press releases

Ambassador Brian Aggeler, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) visited Žepče today and laid flowers at the Memorial to all Civilian Victims of War.

At the 35th session of Parliamentary Gender Equality Committee, held on 28 October, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro presented to MPs and representatives of the public administration instruments developed to support the institution in ensuring the laws are gender-mainstreamed and provide for equal treatment of all citizens.

A second specialized training on operative essentials for anti-corruption officers was held in Yerevan from 25 to 28 October 2022. The training, which focused on the effective investigation of corruption, was hosted by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) with the support of the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia (ACC).

On 20 October 2022, the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department held a national workshop dedicated to preparing a curriculum for law enforcement on Gender-based Violence (GBV) in Tirana. This was accomplished with the assistance of the OSCE Presence in Albania and the support of the Albanian State Police.

As part of continuous support to media professionalism, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro presented sets of mobile journalism equipment to Media Studies and Journalism Department of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Montenegro, on 28 October. A three-day training course for journalism students in November will put the donation in use.

PODGORICA, 27 October 2022- Independent, diverse and quality public-interest journalism and widespread media-literacy are the best antidote to disinformation. These were some of the conclusions from a regional conference on Media and Digital Literacy and Disinformation, held by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Agency of Electronic Media today.

Some thirty students and teachers of the Turkmen State Energy Institute in Mary participated in an OSCE-organized seminar on green energy diplomacy that took place on 26 and 27 October 2022. The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat organized the two-day event to discuss various aspects of renewable energy

From 24 to 27 October, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized a course on requesting electronic evidence across borders in Tashkent, in close co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

On 26 October, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro further supported the digitization of the Parliament’s library services through provision of technical equipment that included magnetic and plastic card printer, thermal label printer and bar code scanner, as well as books on cultural studies, discussions papers and essays, academic, historical, political theory, economics, and ecological titles.

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov visited Washington D.C. and New York from 17 to 21 October 2022. During the first part of the trip, the High Commissioner met with officials at the US State Department to discuss the most pressing challenges to security and

Twenty-two young women and men from both banks of the Dniester/Nistru River gained and developed negotiation skills, and solved a crisis during a simulation of OSCE Permanent Council as part of the 9th edition of the Model OSCE for Youth event organized this year in-person by the OSCE Mission to

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media concludes visit to Mongolia

VIENNA/AMMAN, 25 October 2022 – Advancing security and co-operation in the Mediterranean and OSCE regions is at the heart of the 2022 OSCE Mediterranean Conference that began today in Jordan.

On 17 October, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in close co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, organized the first in a series of webinars for cadets and lecturers from the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. The purpose of the initiative is to raise awareness about key trends and developments in contemporary policing among students and staff of the Academy.

Fifteen specialists from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan completed a four-week regional Explosive Ordnance Disposal course (EOD level 2) at the Regional Explosive Hazards Training Centre (REHTC) of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) in Chimteppa, on 21 October 2022.

ZURICH, 21 October 2022 – Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, concluded his three-day visit to Switzerland today. He commended the country’s multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary approach to anti-trafficking through cantonal roundtables. He also emphasized the need to step up identification and assistance to all victims of trafficking and boost prevention measures, particularly those related to the misuse of technology.

On 21 October, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo concluded a series of five training workshops on the prevention and handling of domestic violence cases for 144 newly appointed Kosovo Police (KP) officers. The workshops focused on the legal framework, including obligations and responsibilities arising

A grand opening of a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence took place on 21 October 2022 at the Institute of Telecommunications and Informatics in Ashgabat. The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat initiated the establishment of the Centre of Excellence to support the host government’s efforts aimed at

Law enforcement representatives from the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service of Uzbekistan attended an OSCE training course on cryptocurrencies and Dark Web investigations in Tashkent from 17 to 21 October. The course was organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department in close co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The 2022 Aarhus Centres Annual Meeting was held in Vienna and online on 19 and 20 October 2022. The meeting focused on the role of Aarhus Centres in strengthening peace and security, their new Strategy and Action Plan, and on the contribution of the Centres to sustainable development.

On October 20th 2022, 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 expert roundtable to launch a new extra-budgetary project on fighting money laundering activities carried out via virtual assets and cryptocurrencies. The event is part of the extra-budgetary project on “innovative policy solutions to mitigate money laundering risks of virtual assets” funded by the United States and Germany.

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomes the appointment of the new Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. We trust that the Chief Prosecutor will demonstrate clear and resounding commitment to ensuring the resilience,

ŁÓDŹ, 20 October 2022 – Increasing societal resilience to cyber threats through enhanced public awareness and education is the focus of the OSCE’S annual cyber/ICT security conference held on 20 and 21 October in Łódź, Poland.

Forensic centres in the Western Balkans have committed to use OSCE best practices in development of handbooks to further improve regional co-operation and help countries meet international standards in the exchange of forensic data.

The XV Annual Prosecutorial Symposium took place from 17-20 October 2022 in Neum, gathering over 200 prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals around different panel discussions on criminal matters.

A two-day International High-Level Conference on “International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists” concluded on 19 December in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

A three-day train-the-trainer course focused on furthering the skills of officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to disrupt terrorist groups through the application of financial techniques concluded on 19 October 2022 in Vienna. The OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized this initiative as part of an ongoing training programme on countering terrorist financing, in co-operation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Teresa Ribeiro, met today, 18 October 2022, with Ambassador Mihaela Mocanu to discuss the areas in which the RFoM’s institution can provide assistance to Moldova. Ribeiro and Mocanu discussed, among other things, the challenges posed by

ASTANA, 19 October 2022 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened an election observation mission for the 20 November early presidential election in Kazakhstan, following an official invitation from the national authorities and in accordance with its mandate.

DUSHANBE, 18 October 2022 – The International High-Level Conference on “International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists” opened today in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Working with the Association of Youth with Disabilities, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro launched a campaign to inform over 1,000 persons people deprived of their legal right to vote in elections.

On 17 October, the OSCE Presence in Albania and the Central Election Commission (CEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to intensify co-operation for advancing CEC’s capacities to carry out its work in line with OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and best international standards. “This document is a

OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid launched the first OSCE Women’s Peace Leadership Programme today. Participants from all over the OSCE region and beyond, including Ukraine and Afghanistan – high-level women mentors and women leaders selected as mentees – participated in the event.

ASTANA, 17 October 2022 – Observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will hold a press conference on the opening of the observation mission to the forthcoming early presidential election in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, 19 October.

On 14 October, Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Dominique Waag, visited the Police Academy in Danilovgrad and met with its acting director Vladimir Stanišić. The meeting discussed challenges that the Academy faces and possibilities for future co-operation.

The second executive committee of the project “Assisting the national authorities of the Republic of Albania to decrease the risk of weapon proliferation and misuse of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW)” was gathered in Tirana on 14 October 2022. The project is implemented by the OSCE Presence in

VIENNA, 14 October 2022 — One year after prominent journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize, the media freedom situation has further deteriorated, stated OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro today. While the Novaya Gazeta newspaper in the Russian Federation, of which Dmitri Muratov is chief-editor, was ordered to shut down, Maria Ressa now faces the immediate threat of imprisonment for her journalistic work.

The International High-Level Conference on “International and Regional Border Security and Management Cooperation to Counter Terrorism and Prevent the Movement of Terrorists” will take place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, from 18 to 19 October 2022.

From 10 to 14 October, the Border Security and Management Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in close co-operation with the OSCE Presence in Albania, organized advanced training on the Identification of Forged Documents for 15 border police officers (3 women, 12 men) from Albania.

Some seventy students representing the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Magtymguly Turkmen State University and the International University for Humanities and Development attended an OSCE-organized lecture course on political communication, which took

REYKJAVIK, 13 October 2022 –Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, concluded his two-day visit to Iceland. He noted positive efforts the country made in combating human trafficking in recent years, and encouraged authorities to enhance their work on evolving threats, such as online exploitation.

Building on the training courses in 2020 and 2021, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro finalized in September advanced training sessions on infographics and data visualization for eight staff of Parliamentary Institute and Parliamentary Budget Office, enabling them to develop creative solutions for Parliament’s publications, produced in a clear and concise form.

The OSCE Presence in Albania presented today its project on advancing the training capacities of the School of Magistrates and the Security Academy in the fight against trafficking in human beings. The Project – financed by the governments of the United States of America, Norway and Italy – aims to

On 12 October, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Action against Terrorism Unit (TNTD/ATU), organized a training on “Understanding the Role of Gender in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism” (P/CVERLT) in Valletta, Malta, with the support of the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Vienna, and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law.

During September 2022, around 7.800 first graders in all elementary schools across Montenegro were presented with educational colouring books, designed and printed with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in co-operation with the with the Montenegrin section of the International Police Association and the Women Police Association of Montenegro.

On 5 and 6 October, women human rights activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine gathered to share successful practices of supporting survivors of sexual violence against women in conflict, setting up referral mechanisms, and holding perpetrators accountable amid war and post-conflict settings.

The 2022 referendum in Kazakhstan was administered efficiently but the campaign lacked meaningful debate. Together with the restrictive media environment, there were limited opportunities for voters to be informed on the substance of the proposals, although the initiative for constitutional changes

On 11 October, the OSCE Presence in Albania organized its eighth annual Media Development Forum, a platform for dialogue among media, public institutions and civil society. This year’s Forum focused on press freedom and the development of media in the country, journalist safety, and the challenges

Election experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented the final report and recommendations of the observation mission to Serbia’s April 2022 presidential and early parliamentary elections during a visit to Belgrade from 3 to 7 October. ODIHR’s priority

WARSAW/SKOPJE/STOCKHOLM/COPENHAGEN/VIENNA, 10 October 2022- OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, Foreign Minister of Sweden Ann Linde, and Foreign Minister of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani, representing the OSCE Troika, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Margareta Cederfelt (MP, Sweden), OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Secretary General Roberto Montella strenuously condemned Russia’s recent attacks against Ukraine’s population in the following statement: