observed and will also provide recommendations to help countries meet their commitments in this area. In August, following an invitation from the United States, an ODIHR delegation visited the Guantanamo Detention Facility at the United States Naval Base in Cuba and met with officials in Washington D.C., as well as with civil society representatives and defence counsel of some former and current detainees. The visit came as part of the Office’s activities to assist participating States in meeting their commitments to respect human rights in the fight against terrorism. Human Rights in Counter-Terrorism Investigations: A Practical Manual for Law Enforcement Officers, published in November, was another example of ODIHR’s work in this vein. Produced jointly with the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, the manual examines the potential impact on human rights in counter-terrorism activities, including information-gathering and intelligence; witness and crime-scene examination; the arrest, detention and questioning of terrorism suspects; and the integrity and accountability of investigations. The year also saw a broad range of activities by ODIHR in the area of democratization. In co-operation with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Office published the Handbook on Monitoring Administrative Justice, which was launched on the sidelines of the Annual OSCE Human Dimension Meeting, held at the end of September and beginning of October, in Warsaw. The handbook comprises both a compilation of fair trial standards and practical guidance on monitoring administrative proceeding for compliance with these standards. As part of its activities to strengthen capacity for legal reform, over the year ODIHR reviewed 23 laws and draft laws from a number of participating States. The reviews, performed upon requests from the respective states, included legislation on judicial independence, prosecution reform, criminal procedures, freedom of association, gender equality, national human rights institutions and political party financing. Four of the reviews were prepared jointly with the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission. Continuing its activities to strengthen the work of representative parliaments, ODIHR published the Background Study: Professional and Ethical Standards for Parliamentarians, providing a comparative analysis of practical measures to promote ethical parliamentary behaviour. The Office carried out 19 election-observation activities in 18 participating States in 2013, with the participation of more than 2,000 observers from 48 of those states and from two OSCE Partner for Cooperation countries. It produced 57 election-related reports, including final reports providing recommendations on how electoral processes can be improved in relation to OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections. ODIHR also carried out 12 visits to participating States to discuss the findings of election observation reports, to further explain the reasoning behind the findings and to offer expertise to assist in the implementation of recommendations made. The Office’s observation methodology continued to evolve in response to emerging trends in elections, with the publication of the Handbook for the Observation of New Voting Technologies, as the use of new information and communication technologies in elections has increased considerably in recent years. ODIHR also published the second edition of the Guidelines for Reviewing a Legal Framework for Elections, updating the first to take account of developments in international standards and practice. On the request of the Ukrainian Chairperson-inOffice, ODIHR also issued the Review of Electoral Legislation and Practice in OSCE participating States, the first document of its kind to synthesize data contained in hundreds of reports produced by the Office in the course of its election observation activities. As the heading suggests, the above is just a brief overview of ODIHR’s activities in 2013, of which the following pages present a much more comprehensive account. I hope that this account will not just provide you with a complete picture of the Office’s work, but also a stronger understanding of the nature and importance of OSCE commitments in the human dimension. As was both recognized by participating States in the adoption of two new decisions at the Ministerial Council in Kyiv, and reinforced in the events that surrounded that meeting, the human dimension remains absolutely relevant to the OSCE’s concept of regional security. ODIHR remains committed to its mandate and role in promoting that security, by supporting work by governments and civil society toward making it a reality. ODIHR Annual Report 2013  /   7 Ambassador Janez Lenarčič Director, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)