9.1 DOMESTIC INSTITUTIONS AND GROUPS One of the first issues for a mission to consider when it receives an individual complaint is the extent to which effective domestic remedies and solutions may be available. As a general principle, victims of human rights violations are expected to exhaust domestic legal remedies before seeking international remedies for their complaints. There are exceptions to this principle, e.g., where domestic remedies are unavailable, generally ineffective, or take an unreasonably long time, or in circumstances where the complainant has a legitimate fear for his or her safety from an appeal to local authorities. Moreover, since the OSCE human rights commitments are political rather than legal, there is no strict requirement that domestic options be pursued before the OSCE can become involved. It is therefore common for OSCE field operations to become involved in seeking solutions to human rights cases even when the domestic appeals processes have not been completed. Still, for most individual complaints, the first option an OSCE field operation should consider is a referral to appropriate domestic means and remedies. To make referrals effective, the mission must be well informed on the various options available locally. In general, these will include some or all of the following: 9  Government offices: The first logical step by someone alleging an individual violation of human rights should be an appeal to the relevant government institution or agency to take action to redress the violation. This could be a ministry such as the Ministry of Housing, Social Affairs, or Justice, or it might be another institution, such as the police or the central election commission. OSCE missions receiving individual complaints should always ascertain if an appeal to a government office has been lodged and, if so, with which office and with what result. If not, the mission should assess whether recommending such a step to the complainant would be useful in light of the nature of the violation and local circumstances;  National human rights institutions: Many countries have national human rights commissions and/or ombudsman institutions that handle individual complaints of human rights violations. Some also have special offices to assist persons belonging to minorities or other groups. If such institutions exist in a host country, they can often be a valuable way for an individual to pursue a complaint. OSCE missions should become familiar with any such offices in the country and their functions in order to better assess whether they would be useful points of referral in different kinds of cases; 83