News and press releases

THE HAGUE, 24 October 2023 – The institution of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) marked its 30th anniversary today with a high-level conference at the Peace Palace in The Hague. At the event, High Commissioner Kairat Abdrakhmanov also presented new recommendations on the effective participation of national minorities in social and economic life.

On 24 October 2023, Tajikistan’s Border Troops were provided with ambulance vehicles and technical equipment as part of an OSCE project funded by the European Union (EU).

On 20 October 2023, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe (Office) supported the Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense in the organization of the Asian Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2023.

On 23 October, in Tashkent, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) – together with the National Human Rights Centre, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its Regional Office for Central Asia, the United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan and the Office in Uzbekistan of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation – organized an International Forum titled: "Youth Rights: Possibilities and Mechanisms of Protection". The Forum commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.

From 16 to 20 October 2023, the OSCE delivered a national training course on gender-responsive policing of violence against women and girls in Popova Šapka. The course – organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD), the OSCE Mission to Skopje, and the Police Training Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in North Macedonia – was delivered by the six national police officers and prosecutors who had previously benefited from the TNTD’s train-the-trainers course in Warsaw. Twenty-two police officers and prosecutors from various municipalities in North Macedonia- twelve women and ten men – learned to respond to cases of violence against women and girls while maintaining a victim-centred approach.

VIENNA, 23 October 2023 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, concluded a two-day official visit to London. During her visit, she engaged in a series of productive meetings with various stakeholders, including Sir John Whittingdale, Minister of State for the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, Lord Christopher Bellamy KC, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, Christian Rogg, Director for Development and Open Societies, and members of Parliament, including Vice Chairs of All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Media Freedom issues. The primary focus of these discussions was to address both current and emerging challenges to media freedom across the OSCE region, including discussions on the situation in the United Kingdom.

The second penitentiary reform forum of Tajikistan, supported by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, was held on 23 October 2023 in Dushanbe and focused on the development of the prison system in Tajikistan.