From 8 to 13 June 2025, the OSCE Academy alumni and students participated in the summer school “OSCE-DCAF Summer School on SSG/R at the OSCE Academy - Linking SSG/R, Human Security and the Safety of Journalists,” co-organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Conflict Prevention Centre (CPC) and the Office of the Secretary General (OSG), together with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek and the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF). This year the School was held in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan.
The event brought together twenty-two participants from Afghanistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – OSCE Academy students and graduates as well as young journalists from the region.
The Summer School focused on the holistic nature of human security, including within the framework of the OSCE’s Youth and Security Agenda, with a specific focus on the freedom of the media and the protection of journalists. The courses explored good practices and tools for applying the principles of good security sector governance within the Central Asian context and in connection with promoting freedom of the media. The interactive sessions included group and brainstorming exercises aimed at enhancing strategic planning, analytical and critical-thinking skills.
This is the third edition of the OSCE-DCAF Summer School on SSG/R, following two successful courses in 2023 and 2024, which has now become a traditional event bringing together OSCE Academy students and alumni from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. This year, the partnership between the OSCE and DCAF was further cemented by the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the OSCE Academy and DCAF, which will allow MA students from the OSCE Academy to benefit from dedicated internships at DCAF’s HQ in Geneva for the years to come.
One of the participants, Uulzhan Bekturova, emphasized the importance of capacity building activities for young people: “Equipping youth with SSG/R skills means equipping tomorrow’s leaders to make security humane, accountable and inclusive. In regions where civic space can shrink overnight, informed youth become a safeguard for transparency and human rights.”
The event was co-funded by three OSCE extra-budgetary projects as well as through in-kind contribution from DCAF. The OSCE projects are the CPC’s “Support, capacity-building and awareness-raising for Security Sector Governance and Reform within the OSCE: Phase III”, the OSG’s “Accelerating the implementation of the Youth and Security Agenda in the OSCE region” and the RFoM’s “Safety of Journalists Project”.