Democratization: Gender Equality essary to provide adequate assistance to victims of domestic violence and to work closely with civil society organizations to enable them to function as intervention centres. In Georgia, consultations are under way in an attempt to improve co-operation among police, prosecutors, and victim-assistance organizations, while the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has started to develop a comprehensive set of standards for the functioning of intervention centres. Since the initial large-scale training of heads of city and regional police districts conducted in 2005 jointly by the Anti-Violence Network (a regional network of anti-domestic-violence advocates and social workers) and Austrian police experts, the ODIHR has been advising the Network on how to raise awareness of domestic violence among police officers. In 2006, some 150 police officers took part in roundtable discussions and training workshops conducted by the Network’s trainers with the support of the ODIHR. The workshops were designed to discuss the implementation of the Law on Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence, adopted by Georgia’s parliament in May. In addition, the ODIHR lends assistance to the Network in its operation of a crisis centre and a shelter for victims of domestic violence. This includes the provision of international expertise regarding methods of victim assistance and the development of legislative initiatives related to victim protection and rehabilitation issues. IV. Developing effective national institutions to mainstream gender equality into policy-making State institutions specifically mandated to promote gender equality are central to the effective design, implementation, and monitoring of comprehensive state policies on gender issues. The Beijing Platform for Action of 1995 points out that the main task of national mechanisms is to support government-wide mainstreaming of a gender-equality perspective in all policy areas. These institutional bodies, often in the form of governmental committees or coun- cils, conduct policy analysis and undertake advocacy, communication, co-ordination, and monitoring of the executive branch’s actions and report to legislative bodies on the progress of these efforts. They are also mandated to encourage the active involvement of a broad and diverse range of institutional actors in the public, private, and voluntary sectors to work for equality between women and men and to promote and establish co-operative relations with relevant branches of government, NGOs, academic and educational institutions, the private sector, and the media. In many participating States, newly established state mechanisms on gender equality face significant constraints in performing their tasks. Challenges include marginalization in national government structures; insufficient support from national political leadership; dependence on donor funding, and the accompanying implication that gender-equality issues are a foreign import; unclear and weak mandates; and a lack of adequate staff, expertise, and resources. The ODIHR undertakes initiatives to assist such national structures through activities aimed at developing expertise, transparency, and accountability. In particular, the ODIHR provides assistance for staff training on women’s human rights, gender-sensitive policy planning, gender-budgeting, etc. Training activities also target skill-building and co-operation development with civil society partners such as women’s NGOs, grassroots women’s groups, and think tanks to promote wider public input into their activities. Furthermore, the ODIHR provides governments with advice on the development of state policies and national action plans on gender equality. In 2006, for example, upon a request from the Unit for Gender Equality of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the ODIHR provided expert guidance on international standards and best practices for developing a national action plan on gender equality. The ODIHR continues to provide expertise Annual Report  41