Benjamin Cardin COPENHAGEN, 9 March 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) has appointed U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin to serve as the PA's first Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism and Intolerance. The newly established position will help focus and strengthen the Assembly's work on countering these challenges across the OSCE area. "Senator Cardin has long been one of the leading voices in both the

COPENHAGEN, 5 March 2015 – The Swedish Parliament and one of the country’s leading think-tanks, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), will host the next leg of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Helsinki +40 Project in Stockholm on 11 March. Experts, policy-makers, ambassadors and OSCE parliamentarians will gather to consider how the European security architecture can become more effective in responding to crises; the OSCE’s

OSCE Special Co-ordinator Marietta Tidei (MP, Italy; right) and OSCE PA Delegation Head Geir Joergen Bekkevold (MP, Norway) observe at a polling station in Dushanbe, 1 March. DUSHANBE, 2 March 2015 – Some contestants provided political alternatives, yet the March 1 parliamentary elections in Tajikistan took place in a restricted political space and failed to provide a level playing field for candidates, the international observers concluded in

COPENHAGEN, 28 February 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today issued the following statement on the murder of Russian opposition leader and former First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov on Friday night in Moscow: "I am outraged and appalled at the news of Boris Nemtsov's murder. On behalf of the parliamentarians of the OSCE, I call on Russian authorities to uncover the truth behind this killing and

COPENHAGEN, 26 February 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today expressed deep concern about continuing threats to civil society and journalists in Azerbaijan and renewed her request to visit detained rights defenders. "The steady stream of threats to rights defenders and reporters in Azerbaijan continues to flow unchecked, pushing

COPENHAGEN, 25 February 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today issued the following statement on continuing restrictions imposed on OSCE monitors in Ukraine and the need for full Russian support: "I am profoundly disturbed by the illegal separatists' continuing refusal to grant unlimited, safe access to OSCE monitors on the ground in Ukraine and their violations of the Minsk Package of Measures. By