May 2020 Plenary Meetings of the Permanent Council

Report by the Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, Ambassador Dr. Pierre von Arx, and by the Director of the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Dr. Alexander Wolters. Report by the Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe, Ambassador Valeriu Chiveri. Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and illegal occupation of Crimea. Situation in Ukraine and the need to implement the Minsk agreements. Remembrance of the victims of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea by the Soviet regime. Russia’s illegal conscription in Crimea in violation of the norms of international law. International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, observed on 17 May 2020. The case of Mr. Y. Dmitriev in the Russian Federation. Recent sentencing of journalists in Belarus.

Report by the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Ms. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir. Report by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, Ambassador John MacGregor. The Permanent Council adopted Decision No. 1368 on the extension of the deployment of OSCE observers to two Russian checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border (United States of America, interpretative statement 1; Croatia-European Union, interpretative statement 2; United Kingdom, interpretative statement 3; Ukraine, interpretative statement 4; Canada, interpretative statement 5; Russian Federation, interpretative statement 6). Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and illegal occupation of Crimea. Situation in Ukraine and the need to implement the Minsk agreements. Violation of educational and linguistic rights of national minorities in Latvia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anti-Semitism in the OSCE region. The death penalty in the United States of America. Parliamentary elections in Serbia, to be held on 21 June 2020. Local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be held on 4 October 2020.