News and press releases

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded a similar number of ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Mission saw a fresh crater and unexploded ordnance near civilian properties on the western edge of Pervomaisk. An SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spotted military hardware in the Petrivske disengagement area. An SMM mid-range UAV spotted anti-tank mines, some for the first time, near non-government-controlled Nyzhnie Lozove and Pikuzy. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs of power lines and the drilling of water wells. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at a checkpoint near Verkhnoshyrokivske and near the border with the Russian Federation, all in non-government-controlled areas...

Representatives of Tajikistan’s government, international organizations and civil society working to combat human trafficking came together for a conference organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe on 25 July 2019 to mark the World Day against Trafficking in Human Beings...

COPENHAGEN, 1 August 2019 – Norwegian parliamentarian Abid Raja has been appointed as Chair of the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT) and will take up his responsibilities immediately. OSCE PA President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) made the appointment Monday and also this week appointed Lisa Chambers (MP, Ireland) as Co-Chair of the CCT...

MINSK, 31 July 2019 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its working groups in Minsk on 31 July 2019…

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. An SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle spotted the return of anti-tank mines inside the disengagement area near Zolote. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs of critical civilian infrastructure, including power lines, water pipelines, and the drilling of water wells. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued, including at checkpoints of the armed formations near Veselohorivka, Verkhnoshyrokivske, and Yuzhna Lomuvatka...

More than 70 representatives of government officials, academia, NGOs and the media as well as members of the diplomatic community gathered in Tashkent to mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons with a presentation of the ‘Guiding Principles on Human Rights in the Return of Trafficked Persons’, a publication by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)recently translated into Uzbek...

To support Montenegro’s public service broadcaster RTCG in its ongoing process of enhancing its professionalism and digitalization, the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized an in-house training for RTCG staff in Podgorica from 29 July to 2 August 2019 with Stephen Herrmann, the former editorial director of the BBC’s Monitoring service...