News and press releases

With Ukrainian legislation not fully adapted to allow effective prosecution and adjudication of international crimes following the Russian Federation’s military attack in 2022, domestic courts are struggling to process the more than 130,000 suspected incidents of war crimes in Ukraine. Tools and training offered by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) are becoming all the more important, participants agreed at an event during the 2024 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference.

A two-day conference, hosted by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and organized as part of the OSCE’s Western Balkans Trial Monitoring Project, brought together leading judicial representatives and legal experts from across the South-Eastern Europe. Convening judicial actors from all six jurisdictions in the region, the event aimed to address the prosecution and adjudication of organized crime and corruption (OCC) cases in the region.

Strengthening the rule of law and ensuring that Western Balkan judiciaries are both independent and effective is central to fostering public trust, advancing democratic institutions, and ultimately securing long-term peace and stability in the region. This was heard at the regional conference...

Mostar, 23 September 2024 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the EU in BiH and the Law School of the University of Sarajevo held the Fourth Media Law School on "Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs)" from 18 to 23 September in Mostar. During the

Today’s joint session of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) parliamentary committees continues the discussion on institutional responses to domestic and gender-based violence, with a focus on the role of the law enforcement and justice sectors.

The Coordination Board for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina organized the first in a series of countrywide meetings to support relevant institutions and civil society actors in jointly addressing challenges related to misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in Tuzla.

On 11-14 September 2024, a seminar aimed at supporting the development of Kazakhstan’s court administration strategy for 2025-2029 commenced in Astana as part of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana’s Extrabudgetary project on “Improving the Effectiveness of the Justice System in Kazakhstan”. The seminar took place in two phases, first in Astana and later in Burabay.