News and press releases

ODIHR and UN Women launch report on human trafficking The ODIHR and UN Women policy recommendations aim to tackle emerging human trafficking during an post COVID-19 To mark World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the United

We, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Office of the High Representative, Delegation of the European Union to BiH and EU Special Representative in BiH and US Embassy in BiH welcome and commend today’s unanimous adoption of the Law on Peaceful Assembly by the Brcko District Assembly...

WARSAW, 25 July 2020 – The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) expresses profound sadness following the death of the human rights defender Azimjan Askarov in prison earlier today. Askarov, a long-standing partner of ODIHR, spent many years prior to his arrest in 2010 documenting police abuse and brutality in his native Kyrgyzstan.

COPENHAGEN, 22 July 2020 – With the OSCE’s leaders’ mandates having expired on 18 July due to a failure to reach agreement among governmental representatives in Vienna, a group of current and former leaders of the OSCE’s parliamentary dimension called today for immediate action to ensure that the organization can continue to function.

TIRANA / VIENNA, 17 July 2020 – In a letter to the OSCE’s 57 participating States today, Albania’s OSCE Chairmanship announced that the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama has taken prompt action to ensure the Organization’s operational continuity in light of the imminent vacancies of the OSCE Secretary General and the Heads of Institutions roles...

WARSAW, 17 July 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has been a formative experience for all humanity and a health emergency of global proportions, presenting a huge challenge to national leaders, health systems, and citizens. The findings of a new report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) shows that it has also been a test to our democracies and the respect for human rights to which countries across the OSCE committed many years ago.

COPENHAGEN, 9 July 2020 – The Vice-Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, Michael Georg Link (Germany), and Secretary General Roberto Montella discussed today with European Parliament member Nacho Sanchez Amor the need for increased efforts by parliaments to combat fake election observation activities. The practice of state authorities and their proxy organizations arranging visits for international actors outside of the institutional international election observation platforms organized under the auspices of the OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE PA, PACE, NATO PA and the European Parliament is a growing challenge, they said...