OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva (left) and Verkhovna Rada Chairperson Volodymyr Groysman speak to the media following their meeting in Kyiv, 6 February. COPENHAGEN, 6 February 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) met today with Verkhovna Rada Chairperson Volodymyr Groysman, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and other senior parliamentary and government officials in Kyiv for discussions that focused on the status

Vienna's Hofburg Congress Centre will host the OSCE PA's Winter meeting on 18-20 February. COPENHAGEN, 5 February 2015 – The escalating crisis in and around Ukraine and the OSCE’s continuing efforts to help resolve it will be the focus of parliamentary debate and keynote presentations at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Winter Meeting , held on 18-20 February at the Hofburg Congress Centre in Vienna. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbian

The OSCE PA's Isabel Santos (right) and Mehmet Sevki Kulkuloglu (center) stand alongside OSCE PA Deputy Secretary General Gustavo Pallares before boarding their flight to Guantanamo. COPENHAGEN, 29 January 2015 – The leadership of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions has completed a visit to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and today called on OSCE countries to proactively assist

COPENHAGEN, 29 January 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today issued the following statement on the Russian Supreme Court’s rejection of a request by the Justice Ministry to close the human rights group Memorial: "The decision of the Supreme Court to not shut down one of the country’s most prestigious and important human rights

OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva COPENHAGEN, 27 January 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today called on Russia to close its international border with Ukraine to help counter the alarming increase in violence in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks. "Russian leaders have spoken of their support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. In keeping with that pledge, I call on Russia to close the

OSCE PA human rights Chair Isabel Santos COPENHAGEN, 23 January 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today expressed concern about the sentencing of prominent Tajikistani lawyer and opposition figure Shukhrat Kudratov and the state of civil and political liberties in the country. She also noted the new charges brought against Zayd