News and press releases

The factors that make people belonging to minorities more vulnerable to human trafficking and ensuring respect for the rights of victims were discussed at the launch of a new joint publication by the OSCE’s Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (CTHB) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 11 September 2024.

Introduction of non-custodial sentences as an alternative to prison and widening possibilities for rehabilitation and parole were discussed at an OSCE-organized seminar that took place on 10 and 11 September 2024 in Ashgabat. The seminar introduced participants to the United Nations Standard

Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals concluded the XVII Annual Prosecutorial Symposium, convened from 1 to 4 September in Neum. The Symposium serves as a platform for training, debating criminal justice issues, and the exchange of best practices.

WARSAW, 22 July 2024 – In recent months, the intensified large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian cities have resulted in an increasing number of civilian casualties and severe damage to civilian infrastructure, while evidence is growing of widespread and systematic torture of detained civilians and prisoners of war in Russian-controlled areas, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its latest report on violations of international law following Russia’s military attack in Ukraine.

WARSAW, 3 July 2024 – This week’s verdicts by a Minsk court sentencing 20 Belarusian experts and analysts in absentia to over a decade in prison for peaceful activities in support of the political opposition are a clear violation of free speech and the right to a fair trial, and should be revoked, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said today.

Ambassador Brian Aggeler, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mission), and Duška Jurišić, Deputy Minister of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by representatives of the international community, visited Banja Luka, Prijedor and Kozarac today to learn about challenges facing minorities living in these communities.

WARSAW, 20 June 2024 – As the number of forcibly displaced people in the OSCE area reaches a record high, the proliferation of new border technologies is likely to have a profound impact on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of refugees across the region, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said on the occasion of World Refugee Day.