68 HANDBOOK FOR NHRIs ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY The 2004 OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality contains a number of recommendations for the participating States, including to: • Establish or strengthen existing mechanisms for ensuring gender equality, inter alia, by making available the services of an impartial and independent person or body, such as an Ombudsman/Human Rights Commissioner, to address gender-related discrimination against individual citizens; • Adhere to and fully implement the international standards and commitments they have undertaken concerning equality, non-discrimination and women’s and girl’s rights; and • Comply with CEDAW or consider ratifying this convention and its optional protocol, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. 49 Participating States have also decided to “intensify the co-operation of the OSCE with the relevant structures of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union and other international organizations, as well as with civil society and relevant non-governmental organizations, to promote the prevention of and the fight against all forms of violence against women and girls.”50 Within the OSCE, the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is the main institution tasked with assisting states with implementing human dimension commitments. It does so through a range of activities, as well as regular meetings to take stock of implementation and recommend follow-up. ODIHR works with governmental and non-governmental partners, including NHRIs and national mechanisms for gender equality, and can provide assistance, including in relation to legal review and capacity building. In terms of co-operating with the OSCE, NHRIs can: • Participate and provide information on the human rights situation in their countries at OSCE/ODIHR meetings and recommend further action, including in relation to commitments on women’s rights and gender equality; 49 OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality, Decision No. 14/04, 7 December 2004, para. 42. 50 Decision on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women, OSCE, MC.DEC/15/05, 6 December 2005.