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Chapter 3 of the Vienna Document is designed to reduce risk of international conflicts through "exchanging information on defense policy, force planning, budgets, procurements, and calendars." In other words, OSCE members now believe that the movement and position of Russian troops in eastern Europe constitutes an unusual situation, and one of which the international community has not been properly informed. http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/2339

Representatives of the OSCE tried to drive away in Kharkiv. Dozens of pro-Russian activists demanded that the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe did not intervene in the situation in Ukraine. Protesters called for even begin work. Required the guests to leave Ukraine because they, in their opinion, biased . We recall that yesterday came to Kharkov observers. ***OSCE observers, headed by the Chairman of the monitoring mission in Ukraine Ambassador Adam Koberatsky arrived in Kharkov. The members of the mission will conduct monitoring of the social and political developments in the region and ways...

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Russia’s absorption of Ukraine’s Crimea region after a secession referendum and declaration of independence there violated international law. […] Merkel stressed that international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe shared that view. …

Defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak says a 40-strong OSCE delegation, including two Poles, were blocked from entering Crimea by unidentified men wearing military uniform. "The mission has been detained, they cannot go further. They landed in Odessa and they were traveling by car from Odessa towards the Crimean Peninsula, but they were detained by unidentified men in fatigues," Siemoniak said on Wednesday afternoon, adding that they may be allowed to go back the way they came but would not be allowed in to Crimea, Reuters reports. OSCE spokeswoman Natacha Rajakovic has confirmed the observers were blocked from entering the region. The...

The Magnitsky List of bad boy Russians is set for a version 2.0 and the Kremlin is not too happy about it. Victoria Nuland, nominated to be the next deputy U.S. Secretary of State, and Daniel Baer, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the post of U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said Thursday that they were in favor of adding more Russians to the blacklist of Russians accused to aiding and abetting in the human rights abuse of 37-year-old Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has warned a group of UN-affiliated “international election observers” that they could be subject to criminal prosecution if they breach state laws by being within 100 feet of polling place entrances.The US State Department issued a warning as well. No, not to the election observers — to Texas:International election observers planning to visit Texas polling places have “full immunity” from being arrested in the United States, the State Department said when discussing a letter from the Texas Attorney General.“I’m not going to get into any kind of hypothetical situations or predict where this is going...

International election observers planning to visit Texas polling places have “full immunity” from being arrested in the United States, the State Department said when discussing a letter from the Texas Attorney General. “I’m not going to get into any kind of hypothetical situations or predict where this is going to go other than to say we have every expectation that this will be worked out and to state the fact, which is that under U.S. law they are eligible for immunities,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Reporters tried to get her to state explicitly that Texas could not arrest...

International inspectors are there to make sure you vote properlyThose who fear that voter fraud will play a corrupting role on Election Day shouldn’t worry. The Europeans are coming to save the day. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is sending 44 observers to monitor U.S. election procedures. According to the organization, teams of two will fan out to “follow campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant federal and state institutions, implementation of the legislative framework, and the resolution of election disputes.” The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has been poll...

By Mr. Curmudgeon:We can all breathe a sigh of relief. 150 observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations-affiliated elections watchdog, will be on hand this November 6 to assure America's presidential balloting is fair and clean.Just in case you were wondering, no, they won't be monitoring Chicago's electoral corruption - where eager souls vote early and often, or that rise from the dead just for the occasion.According to The Hill, the NAACP, ACLU and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights approached the OSCE to express their concern that Republicans were engaging...

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev meets with President Obama at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April 2010. (AP Photo/File) (CNSNews.com) – When American voters go to the polls next month, among those observing the election will be monitors from four countries judged by the veteran democracy watchdog Freedom House as “not free” and another six it regards as “partly free.”The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers will “assess these elections for compliance with international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”They will also look into voter-identification and other laws which critics have labeled “racially discriminatory.”In a...

United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, aconcern raised by civil-rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner on democratization and human rights projects, will deploy 44 observers around the county on Election Day to monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places. Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the OSCE this...

United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner on democratization and human rights projects, will deploy 44 observers around the county on Election Day to monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places. Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the...

The modern history is able to provide many eloquent examples of use of practice of double standards in an international policy. First, it concerns ambiguity of approaches of influential western powers and the leading international organizations as to the estimation of election campaigns, and other democratic processes taking place in the states of the former USSR. Therefore, at elections in the countries where the ruling political regime is pro-Western, the international observers recognize that elections meet the European and international standards. On the contrary if a ruling regime or the winner of election has not pro-Western orientation, observers, as a...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Muslims and people of other faiths plan to gather at the Connecticut Capitol to discuss what they call "Islamophobia" across the country and concerns for their safety during the holy month of Ramadan.

SNIPPET - quote: Obama's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism speaks out against "Islamophobia" If Hannah Rosenthal really wants to end "Islamophobia," here is an easy way. She can call upon Muslims to: 1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts. 2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means. In line with this, clarify what is meant by their condemnations of the killing of innocent people by...

On June 30 the OSCE officially terminated its Mission in Georgia, which had for 17 years monitored the situation in and around South Ossetia. Russia forced the OSCE to close the Mission by vetoing the prolongation of its mandate in the OSCE's Permanent Council. Also on June 30 the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), which had for 15 years monitored the situation in and around Abkhazia, began evacuating its personnel, following Russia's veto against that Mission's mandate in the U.N. Security Council (EDM, June 2, 12, 17). OSCE military monitoring officers on patrol in Georgia, in 2008 Moscow wants...

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania on Monday passed a law removing from public posts people linked with the feared former Communist secret police, despite criticism from opposition parties and concerns within the international community. Lawmakers voted 74-2 for the law, while one abstained. The remaining 63 deputies in the 140-seat Parliament boycotted the vote. Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Albania needed "to cleanse itself from the communist calamity." The law applies to all former members and associates of the Sigurimi secret police, from November 1944 when Albania was liberated from Nazi occupiers until the collapse of Communism in December 1990....

On Nov. 6, in a long expository article, The New York Times informed us that, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Tbilisi had (a) initiated the hostilities and (b) done so with indiscriminate bombing of the South Ossetian capital without regard to civilian casualties--despite Georgian claims to the contrary. All sides consider the OSCE to be a highly dependable, impartial, monitoring body with long experience in the region. Whatever the BBC is pretending to report there, their subtext sneaks through loud and clear--Georgia invaded first. If Georgia invaded first, Russia was provoked, Russia could not...

Just so you people know, other countries are monitoring our elections thanks to an invitation by our Ambassador for limited observation, meaning they cannot interfere: WASHINGTON, 10 October 2008 - The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) today opened a limited election observation mission to monitor the 4 November elections in the United States of America. ... The mission will assess the upcoming elections in the context of OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, as well as national legislation. The observers will focus mainly on federal legislation and its implementation, election reform issues, the...

Spiegel: OSCE observers fault Georgians in conflict Europe News Aug 30, 2008, 9:52 GMT Hamburg - European observers have faulted Georgia in this month's Caucasus conflict, saying it made elaborate plans to seize South Ossetia, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. In a report to appear in its Monday edition, it said officials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had said acts by the Georgian government had contributed to the outbreak of the crisis with Russia. Spiegel said OSCE military observers in the Caucasus had described preparations by Georgia to move into...