KAS Ukraine

It has been six months since Germany assumed the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at the beginning of 2016. To present the German OSCE priorities and discuss their implications for Ukraine, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and UCIPR brought together diplomats, OSCE representatives and experts for a roundtable discussion in January in Kyiv.

After half a year of Germany’s OSCE Chairmanship, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung organized a large-scale conference on 3 June 2016 in Kharkiv to reflect on the results, developments, and next steps for the remaining six months of the chairmanship. The purpose of this conference was to give representatives of NGOs, human rights monitors, journalists and local activists a platform to discuss the role of the OSCE for civil society and media in Kharkiv, Donezk and Luhanks regions.

Following the conference, the assessment and recommendations of the civil society and media participants have been summarized and are now available in English and Ukrainian. Among others, the often distorted and frequently negative public perception of the OSCE, the strong focus on the Special Monitoring Mission and lack of awareness about the work of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator, increasing pressure from local authorities on journalists for favorable coverage, and lack of interaction between civil society and authorities were highlighted.

For more information and the outlined recommendations, find the summary in English and in Ukrainian here.