News and press releases

VIENNA, 25 October 2018 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today expressed his alarm and strong condemnation after an explosive device was sent to CNN’s offices in New York, in the United States of America...

YEREVAN, 25 October 2018 – Concluding a two-day visit to Yerevan yesterday, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, welcomed the commitment of the Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to strengthen freedom of the media, and encouraged the authorities to undertake additional initiatives...

A series of workshops on project management aimed at improving the access of the non-governmental sector to state and local government funding concluded on 24 October 2018. Three hundred and fifty government officials and 250 representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) took part in the two-day workshops held across Ukraine. They were organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) in partnership with the country’s Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

A two-day national workshop organized by the OSCE on transit procedures with a view to furthering implementation of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement was held for more than 30 representatives of the public authorities of Kazakhstan and the country’s business associations on 23 and 24 October 2018 in Astana...

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM facilitated and monitored the recovery of the bodies of a man and a woman from a location near the neighbourhood of Vilnyi, between Zolote-4/Rodina and Zolote-5/Mykhailivka in Luhansk region. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as again near Zaichenko, Novoazovsk, Lebedynske and Alchevsk.* The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Miusynsk. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as to enable demining in Zolote-2/Karbonit and Nyzhnoteple. The SMM followed up on reports of a fire at a café in Odessa.

There is still no effective system of judicial protection for those who face discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the country’s Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination is inconsistently applied, concludes an analysis presented by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on 24 October 2018 at the Annual Conference of Civil Law Judges in Jahorina...

VIENNA, 24 October 2018 – How the rights and duties of military, paramilitary and security forces’ personnel, including their human rights and fundamental freedoms, are reflected in policy development, training and education programmes, was explored at today’s meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation in Vienna, held under the Forum’s Swedish Chairmanship...