News and press releases

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) hosted the fourth annual Electoral Seminar, with a focus on election observation, fundamental freedoms and election campaigns, on 30 October 2018 in Vienna. The event brought together more than 100 representatives of OSCE delegations, election management bodies, international organizations and citizen observer groups. 

Enhancing the independent monitoring and documenting of the use of weapons and restraints in law enforcement activities was the focus of a capacity-building event for Polish torture prevention monitors on 30 October 2018 in Warsaw. The event was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic

COPENHAGEN, 30 October 2018 – Some 75 members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will soon be travelling to the United States to observe the 6 November midterm elections. Led by Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE short-term observer mission George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) and Head of the OSCE PA mission Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), the observers will participate in several days of meetings and briefings in Washington, DC, before deploying around the country for election day observation...

The OSCE Border Management Staff College concluded its first course overseas on 26 October 2018. The 22nd Border Management Staff Course for 21 mid- to senior-ranking official representing 15 countries, including Armenia, Australia, Cyprus, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine, was held at the premises of Legione Allievi, a training school of the Italian Financial Police, the Guardia di Finanza in Bari, Italy...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions between the evenings of 26 and 27 October, compared with the previous reporting period. Between the evenings of 27 and 28 October, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous 24 hours. The Mission followed up on its long-range UAV that had gone missing near non-government-controlled Nyzhnokrynske. Small-arms fire was assessed as aimed at an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle near Metalist. The SMM saw weapons in violation of agreed withdrawal lines near Novookhtyrka and Novoaidar. It recorded ceasefire violations assessed as inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as near Zaichenko, Novoazovsk and Yuzhna-Lomuvatka. The SMM monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable demining activities near Nyzhnoteple and Zolote-2/Karbonit and facilitated repairs to damaged houses in Marinka and Krasnohorivka. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored a public gathering in support of election reform...

Conciliation in international law as a means to peacefully resolve disputes between states was the focus of a colloquium held on 11 and 12 October 2018 in Geneva by the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE in co-operation with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies...

VIENNA, 29 October 2018 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today expressed his serious concern over the lasting pre-trial detention of bureau chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, which has been extended twice already since July, and hopes that the upcoming court proceeding will lead to his release on 4 November 2018, when his current detention is scheduled to end.