Democratization  •  15 ACTIVITIES ODIHR’s democratization activities can be divided into three basic areas: • Rule of law and legal reform; • Democratic governance and gender; and • Migration and freedom of movement. RULE OF LAW AND LEGAL REFORM Justice systems in all participating States can benefit from assistance in improving their laws, democratic lawmaking procedures and performance to ensure respect for relevant international standards and OSCE commitments on rule of law and human rights. Many of the participating States where ODIHR works are undergoing legal reforms, which raise a variety of rule of law related issues and require changes to national legal frameworks. This is all the more true for countries in transition that experience low levels of trust in the judiciary, coupled with a widespread sense of inequality in the application of the law and a lack of transparency of court proceedings. Independence of the Judiciary Within its efforts to assist participating States to strengthen judicial independence and accountability, ODIHR joined the OSCE Mission to Serbia in December 2015 to monitor elections for the State Prosecutorial Council and High Judicial Council of Serbia, the self-administration bodies responsible for nominating, disciplining, training and promoting judges and prosecutors. The Mission and ODIHR chose to follow these elections in light of their importance for further consolidation of judicial reform in Serbia and in response to ongoing challenges encountered by the councils. A final report will be prepared during the first quarter of 2016 with findings and recommendations to help inform ongoing judicial reform efforts in the country. Trial Monitoring OSCE participating States have acknowledged the importance of trial monitoring as a tool to ensure greater transparency in the implementation of OSCE commitments, and have agreed to allow the presence of monitors in courts as a measure to build confidence. On 12 November, ODIHR published a legal opinion on draft legislation pertaining to the independence of the judiciary, focusing on the performance evaluation of judges in Ukraine, as a continuation of its legislative support to the country’s ongoing judicial reform efforts. During a follow-up event in Kyiv, where ODIHR presented the opinion’s main recommendations, the stakeholders informed the Office that they will consider these suggestions when revising the respective assessment procedures. In fulfilling its role as the depository of the OSCE’s trial-monitoring work and methodology, ODIHR supported the OSCE Mission to Serbia with the organization of a trial-monitoring training event for civil society representatives and Mission staff. Sensitive topics in relation to the trial-monitoring methodology were discussed, such as how to reconcile the need for conducting advocacy with the principle of ­non-  intervention in the judicial process. Responding to the high interest among Ukrainian civil society representatives to improve their skills and knowledge Natalia Sevostyanova (c), Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine with Viktor Taran (l) Director of Center for Political Studies and Analysis and Yuriy Kliuchkovskyi (r), Former MP and the Director of Election Law Institute, at political party regulation reform workshop, co-organized by OSCE/ODIHR, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 14 July 2015. (OSCE/Olexandr Kovalenko)