News and press releases

A manual designed to assist law enforcement officers in South-East Europe in launching controlled delivery operations to combat the trafficking of illicit drugs and their precursors has been updated by the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department in co-operation with the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC)...

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in partnership with the Human and Minority Rights Ministry and the Department for Gender Equality of Montenegro, organized a series of workshops on “Developing Guidelines to Implement Gender Equality Local Action Plans(LAP)“ in Montenegrin municipalities of Nikšić, Plužine, Bijelo Polje and Bar from 8 to 12 October 2018...

VIENNA, 15 October 2018 – On the eve of the first anniversary of the horrific murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir recalled the need to better ensure the safety of every journalist in the OSCE region, and called on the Maltese authorities to ensure that all those involved in this killing face justice...

SKOPJE, 13 October 2018 – Students from 27 schools throughout the country gathered for a day of interaction, fun and entertainment as part of the Building Bridges Fund annual event in Skopje today, organized by the OSCE Mission to Skopje...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. It observed a fresh crater caused by shelling in a residential area of Sakhanka. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske, and observed ceasefire violations near the Petrivske and Zolote disengagement areas. An SMM patrol heard and saw an explosion near Pervomaisk, approximately 300m west of its location. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as near Siedove, Novoazovsk and Voznesenivka, near the border with the Russian Federation.* The SMM observed weapons in violation of the agreed withdrawal lines near Pidlisne. An SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle again spotted vehicles, including a truck carrying an armoured personnel carrier, entering and exiting Ukraine via an unpaved road in a non-government-controlled area of Donetsk region near the border with the Russian Federation where there are no border crossing facilities. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Sakhanka, Artema, Donetskyi, Zolote-5/Mykhailivka and Krasnyi Lyman, as well as to enable demining in Zolote 2/Karbonit. In Kharkiv, the SMM observed a protest at an event hosted by an organization advocating for the rights of the LGBT community.

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region compared with the previous reporting period. It observed fresh bullet impacts at a forward position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area and again observed military positions inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as again near Zoria and Verkhnoshyrokivske.* The SMM observed weapons in violation of the agreed withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. An SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle again spotted vehicles (including one carrying an anti-aircraft gun) in a non-government-controlled area of Donetsk region moving on a dirt road towards the border with the Russian Federation where there are no border crossing facilities; the SMM recalled the unmanned aerial vehicle due to multiple instances of GPS signal loss assessed as jamming. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Marinka, Artema, Vesela Hora, Donetskyi, Krasnyi Lyman and Zolote-5/Mykhailivka, as well as to enable demining in Zolote 2/Karbonit. The SMM observed gatherings in protest of low salaries and high utility costs in Lviv, Dnipro and Ivano-Frankivsk and an evacuation caused by a bomb threat in Kherson.

COPENHAGEN, 12 October 2018 – Following a wave of detentions in Turkey in recent days, the leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee expressed concern that authorities were targeting political opponents in advance of local elections scheduled for March 2019.