represented by Ombudswoman Terezija Stoisits at the key meeting of the Human Rights Council in January 2011. In preparation for a planned comparative report about “Access to cultural heritage” in June 2012, an independent expert for cultural rights appointed by the UN Human Rights Council attended talks at the AOB in spring 2011. The responsibilities, challenges and opportunities for further development of national human rights institutions were among the priorities of the 2011 Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship. The AOB participated actively in the dialogue, including a “Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting” with a number of distinguished attendees in Vienna in April 2011, with Ombudsman Kostelka representing the AOB. He also took part in an OSCE conference in July 2011 for NHRIs in Vilnius and reported on behalf of a working group on the subject “The relationship of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) with the executive branch – mutual responsibilities, expectations and results”. OSCE priority The goal of the EU-funded twinning project “Support for the Strengthening of the Serbian Ombudsman” (2009 – 2011) was to help Serbia’s ombudsman institution, which was only established in 2007, to improve its work. The AOB supported the two-year long twinning project, which was headed by the Greek and the Dutch ombudsman institutions, by sending experts several times to provide in-country assistance. On the occasion of a three-day study visit in Vienna, the sharing of information was focused on the AOB’s communication with the citizens and the media, as well as the reporting system. The AOB was also represented at the closing conference of the twinning project in September 2011 in Belgrade. EU twinning project with Serbia comes to an end Bilateral contacts The AOB sees itself as a partner of newly established ombudsman institutions. The ombudsman of the German-speaking community in Belgium, whose institution was established only in 2010, visited the AOB in January 2011 to gain a picture of the AOB’s diverse responsibilities and to benefit from ideas and impulses for his own work. Other guests who took part in meetings at the AOB were members of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and a delegation of the Argentinean Defensoría General de la Nación. Sharing of experience 39