News and press releases

VIENNA, 18 May 2015 – Representatives from civil society, governments and international organizations explored the challenges, including discrimination and hate crime, Christian communities face in the OSCE region at a conference held in Vienna on 18 May 2015.

The skills and tools required to successfully prosecute hate crimes were at the centre of the first training-of-trainers event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as part of its Prosecutors and Hate Crime Training (PAHCT) programme. The training was provided in Warsaw from 13 to 15 May 2015.

SKOPJE, 15 May 2015 – OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors visited Skopje on 14 May together with Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann, Special Representative on the Western Balkans of the OSCE Chairperson in Office, and Ambassador Dejan Šahović, Head of the Chairmanship Task Force. She continued her meetings in Skopje and Tetovo on 15 May in order to conduct an independent assessment of the situation in line with her mandate...

Civil society participants strengthened their ability to recognize and record hate crimes at a workshop organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Malaga, Spain on 10 May 2015.

SARAJEVO, 30 April 2015 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić completed on Wednesday a two-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). During his visit, Dačić met BiH Presidency members Mladen Ivanić, Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović, Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Crnadak, Chairperson of BiH Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdić, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik and Federation of BiH President Marinko Čavara. During his meetings with senior state officials in Sarajevo, he highlighted the important role that Bosnia and Herzegovina plays in promoting regional co-operation and commended the government for its commitment to undertaking the necessary socio-economic reforms...

WASHINGTON, 28 April 2015 – U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism and Intolerance, met with local leaders and government officials in Paris and Copenhagen over the weekend as follow-up to the violent attacks that took place in both cities earlier this year – the siege at a Kosher Market following the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the shooting at a free speech event at Copenhagen’s main synagogue...

Some 40 representatives from the Ukraine’s Vinnytsia Region and district administrations discussed the international standards on freedom of religion and belief, and responses to hate crime at a seminar organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) with the support of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration on 23 and 24 April 2015.