News and press releases

WARSAW, 11 January 2016 – In an open letter published today, marking 14 years since the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), joined with four UN independent human rights experts in calling on the United States government to close the facility and hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations against detainees, both present and past...

VIENNA, 22 December 2015 – OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier today met the President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, to discuss ongoing co-operation between Italy and the OSCE and key security issues of common concern, including the current refugee and migration emergency, radicalization and violent extremism, the situation in the Western Balkans and human trafficking.

An OSCE-supported five-day winter school on “Inter-cultural Youth Dialogue in the Digital Era” which gathered some 30 young men and women from Serbia and Albania, concluded on 14 December 2015 in Belgrade. The event provided participants the opportunity to exchange experiences on topics such as culture and tradition, youth co-operation, active citizenship and new media...

A two-day high-level roundtable discussion organized by the Office in Tajikistan on the draft national strategy to counter Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism (VERLT) concluded in Dushanbe on 11 December 2015...

BELGRADE / VIENNA / WARSAW, 12 December 2015 — OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier and Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Michael Georg Link today welcomed the adoption by the UN Security Council earlier this week of a Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security...

VIENNA, 10 December 2015 – Establishing an international network of national contact points to co-operate on addressing cases of kidnapping and hostage–taking by terrorists is the focus of a two-day meeting starting in Vienna today and organized by the Transnational Threats Department of the OSCE...

An OSCE-supported international certification programme for 30 representatives of the banking sector on detecting and preventing money laundering and terrorism financing began on 9 December 2015 in Almaty, Kazakhstan...