DEMOCRATIZATION Participants at a workshop on improving the lawmaking process in Serbia, Belgrade, 28 November 2013. (OSCE/Milan Obradovic) The Belgrade meeting was jointly organized with the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). The event gathered representatives of the Republic Electoral Commission, the Provincial Electoral Commission of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Constitutional and Administrative Courts, members of the National Assembly and the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, as well as representatives of political parties, civil society and academia. Following the meeting, ODIHR published a comprehensive report containing the key conclusions and recommendations to provide input to future reform efforts. Strengthening Capacity for Legislative Reform Legislation can only be effective if it is drafted in a clear and concise manner; in addition, it should reflect the main parameters of international human rights instruments, including OSCE commitments. ODIHR supports both policymakers and drafters of legislation through its legislative assistance. In particular, ODIHR supports legal reform in OSCE participating States by reviewing, upon request, individual pieces of draft and existing legislation to ensure clarity and coherence in laws, as well as compliance with OSCE commitments, international human rights standards and established good practice. In 2013, ODIHR reviewed 23 laws and draft laws from a number of OSCE participating States and on various human rights topics. Issues addressed included judicial independence in Kazakhstan, prosecution reform and freedom of association in Kyrgyzstan, gender equality in Mongolia and Ukraine, combating discrimination in Georgia and Montenegro, domestic violence in Georgia and Ukraine, national human rights institutions in Montenegro, criminal procedure reform in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia, and the use of totalitarian symbols by political parties and political party financing in Moldova. The review of Mongolia’s Law on Gender Equality was ODIHR’s first legal review in the OSCE’s newest participating State. For Tunisia, an OSCE Partner for Co-operation, ODIHR reviewed two draft laws on freedom of 28  /   ODIHR Annual Report 2013

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