Dec 1, 2020
President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in Belarus since 1994. In the run-up to elections in the summer of 2020, the Lukashenko regime sought to eliminate political competition to through disqualification, intimidation, and imprisonment.
Election Day proper featured widespread allegations of fraud. Many...
Oct 14, 2020
Election observation is a core element of the OSCE’s efforts to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Every OSCE participating States—including the United States—pledges to invite foreign observers to observe its elections. The United States plays an active role in OSCE election observation...
Jul 10, 2020
Only July 11, 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina were rounded up, gunned down, and buried in mass graves by Bosnian Serb forces, in what was the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.
The brutality of the genocide at Srebrenica was...
Jun 5, 2020
Reports from nearly every corner of the OSCE region suggest that minority groups and vulnerable populations have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and sometimes by the policies enacted by governments to address it.
This extended episode of Helsinki on the Hill takes an in-depth look at the pandemic’s...
Apr 6, 2020
Concentrated in post-communist Central and Southern Europe, Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Roma have historically faced persecution and were the victims of genocide during World War II. In post-communist countries, Roma have suffered disproportionately in the transition to market economies, in part due...