Information and Communication Activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in the Context of the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine

Abstract

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) was deployed in 2014, following a request to the OSCE by Ukrainian government and the decision of Permanent Council. Since then, the OSCE remains the only organization that provides an international presence exactly in the conflict zone in the east of Ukraine. Unarmed civilian observers that represent OSCE participating states provide ongoing monitoring of the events and the security situation on the contact line and all over Ukraine. They monitor and control the implementation of the Minsk agreements, namely, observe the withdrawal of the heavy weapons from the demarcation line, monitor the facts of ceasefire violations, observe the humanitarian and security situation in the conflict zone. They also serve as a communication bridge between different parties of the conflict. By facilitating on-site dialogue, they are trying to reduce tensions and help to normalize the situation in the conflict zone. Information and communication activities are the core activities of the mission, defined by the objectives of its mandate. Communication and information exchange is carried out both by the direct leadership of the Mission, the Chief Monitor, the Deputy Chief Monitor and the observation teams on the ground near the contact line, and in ten regions all over Ukraine. The main target audience of SMM is OSCE’s 57 participating States, however in order to implement the mandate, Mission communicates with various target audiences from civil society representatives to the governmental officials and journalists. In its activities, Mission uses a broad communication toolkit that allows it to perform information interaction with various target audiences, which in turn, contributes significantly to the effective implementation of the objectives defined in its mandate. Key words: OSCE; OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM); communication; mediation; conflicts.