“Together with Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Ambassador Toni Frisch and Per Fischer,  Co-ordinators of the TCG sub-groups on security, humanitarian and economic issues, I firmly reiterate our condemnation of all violations to the cessation of fire in Eastern Ukraine. Such violations, made in denial of the conflict sides’ recent recommitment to ceasefire, pose permanent direct threat to the local population. Furthermore, the shelling of certain civilian infrastructure can also trigger major environmental damage with incalculable consequences, in a region already heavily impaired by more than three years of armed conflict.

With this in mind, we strongly condemn the shelling of the Donetsk Water Filtration Station that took place during the night to 4 November. We stress that a direct or near hit of only one of the 900 kg bottles of highly toxic chlorine gas stored at the Filtration Station for water treatment could kill people within a 200 m radius, including the staff of the facility, and seriously disrupt the supply of water to almost 350,000 people on both the sides of the line of contact.

We call on the sides to the conflict to fully realise these risks and avoid civilian infrastructure. We urge them to give instructions to that effect to their combatants on the ground, to make these instructions public pending the creation of technical safety zones around civilian infrastructure, and to finalise without delay their ongoing TCG discussions on the creation of such safety zones.”

The post OSCE Martin Sajdik makes statement post shelling of the Donetsk Water Filtration Station appeared first on International Finance.

“Co-operation between law enforcement agencies is crucial to preventing and combating criminality in general, and hate crimes in particular,” says Eduart Caka, Senior Police Monitoring Officer at the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. “The monitoring networks will enhance co-operation between the agencies, which will then effectuate a better institutional response to this issue. The Mission is very happy to see that the institutions have a good understanding of what constitutes a hate crime and welcomes the fact that the recommendation by the OSCE Mission to include the topic of hate crimes in the training curricula for new police cadets has been implemented.”

The workshops also served to expand participants’ knowledge with respect to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR’s) definition of hate crime, the specifics of hate crimes as compared to other crimes and the importance of recording these bias-motivated cases. They were also introduced to the findings and recommendations of a 2016 OSCE Mission report on improving hate crime recording, which included the recommendation to establish the monitoring networks, and were briefed on the applicable legal framework and international law provisions related to hate crime.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is mandated with human rights and communities rights protection and promotion, democratization and public safety sector development. It supports law enforcement agencies through advanced and specialized training courses and workshops to increase co-operation and co-ordination.

The post OSCE Mission in Kosovo supports police and prosecution in addressing hate crimes appeared first on International Finance.

The two-day course which was supported by international anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) experts is organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan together with the Financial Intelligence Unit of Uzbekistan and Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Banking sector representatives from regulatory authorities and private sector, as well as key government authorities gathered to discuss NRA process in Uzbekistan and best international practices. The workshop also included interactive and practical learning modules on data collection and analysis.

“We live in a quickly changing environment and money launderers are one step ahead of people who are chasing them. In this regard we need to adapt to those developments and elaborate effective mechanisms to fight against that phenomenon. The international community constantly updates international standards, but their successful implementation highly depends on how they are reinforced particularly in financial sector. Our today’s experts are here to show best practices of implementation of existing mechanisms,” said Mr. Hans-Ullrich Ihm, Senior Project Officer, Economic and Environmental Dimension, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan.

The post OSCE helps combating money laundering and financing of terrorism in banking sector appeared first on International Finance.

He emphasized the need to ensure safe working conditions for journalists in Armenia and referred to cases of obstruction of the professional activities of media workers, especially while covering public events.

“Journalists have the right and duty to report freely. This includes reporting on rallies and demonstrations. The police and the judiciary should take all necessary measures to protect journalists and other media actors, and effectively prevent crimes against them,” Désir said.

“Addressing the safety of journalists requires a systematic approach and strong political will. My office stands ready to assist on this very important issue.”

The Representative met with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan, Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan, Head of the Police Headquarters Hovhannes Kocharyan, and members of the executive management of the Public Service Broadcaster Margarita Grigoryan and Mark Grigoryan.

The Representative also raised concerns about the planned amendments to the country’s Freedom of Information Law, stressing the need to avoid any risk of limiting citizens’ existing right to access to information.

“The discussions and process aimed at amending the current legislation need to be transparent and inclusive to ensure that all potential consequences are foreseen and can be properly addressed before adoption. Upholding public access to information with a very narrow system of exceptions in accordance with international standards, and ensuring that investigative journalism is not hampered, is crucial,” Désir said.

The OSCE media freedom representative also met with journalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations to learn about their perspectives of the media freedom situation in the country and to discuss various issues, including the work of public service media and the proliferation of propaganda.

“Armenia is a partner in the promotion of media freedom, and I am looking forward to future co-operation with all stakeholders on the much needed reform of public service media,” Désir said.

The post OSCE media freedom representative points need of safe working conditions for journalists appeared first on International Finance.