TBILISI, Georgia, 1 October 2012 -- Tonino Picula (MP, Croatia), the special co-ordinator to lead the OSCE short-term election observation mission to Georgia, and more than 50 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly headed to polling stations today to monitor election day activity. In a joint statement released Saturday by the heads of the Parliamentary delegations of the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO and the European Parliament, observers

Tbilisi, 29 September 2012 — The Heads of the Parliamentary delegations of the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO and the European Parliament call on all election stakeholders and political leaders to use the remaining hours of the election campaign to promote their political platforms and exercise restraint, renounce violence and not respond to provocation. "We believe that the Georgian people must be able to exercise their civil and democratic

ROME, 27 September 2012 – OSCE PA President Riccardo Migliori (Italy) today released the following statement after an Italian court upheld a 14-month prison sentence for libel in the case of Il Giornale editor Allessandro Sallusti: "The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly expresses its serious concern about the worrying judgment handed down by Italy's Court of Cassation, which has confirmed on appeal the conviction on a libel charge and the sentence to

COPENHAGEN, 27 September 2012 – The OSCE PA today welcomed the release of political prisoner Siarhei Kavalenka of the Conservative Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front. The release follows Kavalenka's plea for pardon, made several weeks ago to the President of Belarus. "We welcome the news of Kavalenka's release but remain strongly concerned about the fate of others still serving harsh sentences, like Ales Bialiatski and Zmitser Dashkevich

WARSAW, 25 September 2012 – OSCE PA President Riccardo Migliori issued the following statement today regarding arrests of Georgian opposition figures and civil society activists in the lead-up to the country's parliamentary elections on 1 October. "With less than one week to the important parliamentary elections in Georgia, I am very concerned with recent reports by media and civil society groups of numerous arrests of activists associated with

RFE/RL 25 September 2012 The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says it has "serious concerns" over weekend parliamentary elections in Belarus in which not a single opposition candidate won a seat in parliament. The OSCE said on September 24 that the poll was "not competitive from the start." "Many democratic rights" were not respected, the group's observers said in a statement. Most opposition parties had pulled their