MUHTAR IRISOV Democratization: Gender Equality Women discuss domestic violence in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, 23 November. villages, which have traditionally been more accessible for women, these results represent a relatively positive development. After the local elections, the Coalition organized roundtable discussions where Coalition members and women who had been elected to local councils had a chance to forge future partnerships.6 III. Combating domestic violence In many parts of the OSCE region, state authorities fail to prevent, or prosecute the perpetrators of, domestic violence, essentially denying women equality before the law and reinforcing their subordinate social status. The situation is particularly alarming in those countries where domestic violence has been traditionally viewed as a private issue, outside of the public domain, and where there are no legal or other state measures for prosecuting perpetrators and protecting victims of domestic violence. Following the adoption of the OSCE Action Plan for Gender Issues in 2000, and its revised version in 2004, which calls on OSCE structures to assist participating States in preventing and combating domestic violence, the ODIHR reinforced its activities with specific initiatives focused on awareness-raising and capacity-building of state structures and civil society organizations to effectively prevent domestic violence, prosecute perpetrators, and address victims’ needs. 6 The ODIHR’s Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues has also worked on increasing the participation of women in elections through its project “Roma, use your ballot wisely”. 40 Annual Report  To combat domestic violence, one of the first steps that must be taken is the adoption of legislation that makes domestic violence a crime and that provides measures for protecting victims. Then, it is important to raise awareness of the issue among law enforcement and medical professionals and to provide them with the necessary professional preparation. The ODIHR’s approach to combating domestic violence has three areas of focus: sensitizing law enforcement agencies (police, prosecutors, judges) to the fact that domestic violence is a crime, providing training for law enforcement agencies and health-care providers to play an effective role in preventing and combating domestic violence, and promoting cooperation between law enforcement bodies and NGOs on strategies and measures to combat such crimes. In Azerbaijan and Georgia, the ODIHR works closely with police authorities and women’s NGOs to assist them in building a sound legal framework and necessary law enforcement capacity to prevent and combat domestic violence. In Azerbaijan, for example, the ODIHR has provided expertise and financial support to a programme through which a local NGO, Symmetria, and a team of Austrian police have trained more than 200 police officers from all regions of the country on the role of the police and methods for preventing and prosecuting cases of domestic violence. In addition, the ODIHR organized a series of workshops with the participation of Austrian experts to assist in developing curriculum on combating domestic violence for the Police Academy in Baku. Drawing on the Austrian model of developing effective victim-assistance and intervention facilities, the ODIHR organized a training seminar in Graz, Austria, for police officers, healthcare workers, and civil society organizations from Georgia and Azerbaijan on legal and organizational aspects of intervention centres and co-operation methods among social workers and police structures. In follow-up to the training visit, representatives of Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry pledged to take all the steps nec-