News and press releases

WARSAW, 6 April 2021 – The numerous credible reports of criminal charges, administrative detention, intimidation and harassment targeting Belarusian citizens and human rights defenders simply for going about their lives or carrying out their work that have reached the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in recent months, are of increasing concern amid the ongoing human rights violations in the country.

An OSCE-supported online training webinar on the protection of whistleblowers concluded in Nur-Sultan on 26 March 2021. The OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan organized the event in partnership with the Anti-corruption Agency of Kazakhstan...

STRASBOURG/WARSAW, 22 March 2021 – Kyrgyzstan’s draft constitution would result in a complete change of the country’s constitutional order if adopted and raises grave concerns over the lack of respect for the principles of the rule of law, separation of powers, and inherent lack of checks and balances, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe said in a joint legal opinion.

Geneva/Strasbourg/Vienna/Warsaw, 19 March 2021 – The pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for governments, health systems and societies at large, with many people in despair. We also witnessed solidarity with generosity, care and commitment towards the most vulnerable. This crisis offers us a unique opportunity to create more inclusive and equal societies, said the heads of four human rights institutions ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

VIENNA, 9 March 2021 – Ensuring both equal opportunities and equal safeguards for women and men is key to an independent and diverse media landscape, which is vital for open societies based on the principles at the heart of OSCE commitments to human rights and democracy, participants said at a two-day OSCE meeting that ended today.

SKOPJE, 8 March 2021 – Today, on the occasion of International Women’s day, the OSCE Mission to Skopje and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of North Macedonia published a Mission-supported analysis on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and diversity. The analysis shows that the pandemic, and the response to it, has had a disproportionally negative effect on women in all sectors and age groups...

On 19 February 2021, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan organized a public presentation of the Constitution and the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the rights of persons with disabilities” published in Braille, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Training Guide (Professional Training Series), published in the state language. The National Human Rights Centre and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) co-organized the event.