Publications

A legal manual for lawyers on civil court proceedings, drafted by experts with the support of the OSCE Presence in Albania and the Norwegian Government. Not available in English.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo conducts regular monitoring, reporting and advocacy for the full realization of the language rights of all communities in Kosovo. Analyzing practices at the local level, this report reveals that more than seven years after its promulgation, the Law on the Use of Languages remains only partially implemented due to insufficient human and financial resources, often accompanied by lack of sufficient understanding of obligations and/or lack of political will.

This Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties aims at encouraging political party leaders, men and women alike, to support the integration of gender aspects into internal political party decision-making processes. It also seeks to develop the capacity of women politicians to advance their political careers. The key finding that has emerged during the development of this handbook is that internal party reform is critical to women’s advancement. A lack of internal party democracy and transparency, the absence of gender-sensitivity in candidate selection and outreach, as well as the failure to decentralize party decision-making processes, all inhibit women’s opportunities to advance as leaders within parties and as candidates for elected office. To this end, the handbook provides a valuable overview of voluntary measures that political parties can adopt to enhance gender equality within party structures, processes, policies and activities, as a means to provide both women and men equal opportunities to participate meaningfully in the political life of OSCE participating States.

In March 2014 the authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic asked the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) to provide an opinion on the draft law “On Elections in the Kyrgyz Republic” (hereinafter “the draft law”, CDL-REF(2014)014), giving particular consideration to the draft law’s compatibility with international standards and OSCE commitments in three areas: establishment of electoral districts under the proportional representation system, preference voting, and quotas for women and persons belonging to national minorities on lists of candidates. As these three areas have been specifically identified in the request for this joint opinion, they are addressed under the discussion on the electoral system for the distribution of parliamentary mandates. The OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission decided to provide a joint legal opinion on the draft Code.

The scope of this Joint Opinion covers only the Draft Amendments, submitted for review, and the legislation that they are amending. Thus limited, the Joint Opinion does not constitute a full and comprehensive review of the entire legal and institutional framework governing the status and disciplinary responsibility of judges in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The scope of this Opinion covers only the Law on the selection, performance evaluation and career of judges of Moldova, submitted for review. Thus limited, the Opinion does not constitute a full and comprehensive review of the judicial system of Moldova.

This monograph by a group of authors under the title Prosecutorial Investigation – regional criminal procedure legislation and experiences in application, which is issued by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, addresses one of the most current issues relating to the process of the reform of criminal procedure laws, not only of the countries in the region (Serbia, BiH, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Montenegro), but in a much wider context.

The present guidelines are based on OSCE commitments and universally recognized human rights standards that OSCE participating States have undertaken to adhere to. The guidelines are informed by key international instruments relevant to the protection of human rights defenders, in particular the UN Declaration mentioned above. The guidelines do not set new standards or seek to create “special” rights for human rights defenders but concentrate on the protection of the human rights of those who are at risk as a result of their human rights work. As such, the guidelines aim to contribute to promoting equal protection of human rights for all.

The study “Existing models of housing improvement for Roma: Social and affordable housing solutions for Roma and vulnerable population in Serbia” provides an overview of housing solutions, or models, that were implemented in Serbia so far in projects of improvement of housing conditions in substandard Roma settlements, and which could, with certain improvements, be used in future projects. The study was done within the housing component of the “We are here together – European support for Roma inclusion” project which is implemented by OSCE Mission to Serbia and financed by the European Union.

A collection of interviews conducted immediately before and after the 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia. It has been published by the Centre for Gender Studies of the Armenian Association of Women with University Education within the framework of the Project Women's political participation in 2012 parliamentary and local elections in Armenia with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan and with funding provided by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia. Not available in English.