Human Rights • 27
ACTIVITIES
HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING
ODIHR continued to maintain an
overview of human rights developments across the OSCE region, with
a view to identifying trends, challenges and examples of good practices in
the implementation of OSCE human
dimension commitments.
On 17 September, ODIHR and the
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) presented their
joint Report of the Human Rights
Assessment Mission on Crimea. The
100-page report, which was prepared
upon request of a participating State,
was based on interviews with more
than 100 civil society actors, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, Crimean residents and displaced
persons, as well as people travelling between Crimea and mainland
Ukraine. It presented a comprehensive examination of the human rights
situation in Crimea, based on numerous credible, consistent and compelling accounts of serious human rights
violations and legal irregularities on the
peninsula.
On 10 November, ODIHR published
its report on the Human Rights
Situation of Detainees at Guantanamo, a comprehensive assessment
of human rights in the detention
facility, covering issues surrounding
the detention of individuals, proceedings before military commissions, and challenges in closing the
facility and ensuring accountability
for human rights violations against
detainees. The 280-page report is
based on interviews with United
States government officials, military
and civilian lawyers, NGO representatives and former detainees, as well
as extensive desk research.
As part of its third cycle of assembly
monitoring, in 2015 ODIHR observed
assemblies in five participating States.
A comprehensive report with the
monitoring findings will be published
in 2016.
HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT ADVICE
ODIHR provided expert advice on the
implementation of human dimension
commitments to participating States
and other stakeholders, and participated in expert meetings and discussions at the international and national
levels.
On 4 February, at
an event hosted
in Brussels by the
European Parliament Intergroup on
Freedom of Religion or Belief and
Religious Tolerance,
ODIHR launched
its Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities, prepared jointly the Council of
Europe’s Venice Commission. The
guidelines present minimum international standards in the area of recognition of religious or belief communities, delineating the legal framework
that would ensure that communities
wishing to do so have a fair opportunity to be granted legal personality.
The Turkish-language translation of the
guidelines was presented in Istanbul
Dilnoza Satarova (l), ODIHR’s Associate Officer on Freedom of Religion
and Belief with Ergun Ozbudun (c-l), Professor of Law at Istanbul Sehir
Universitesi, Bulent Senay (c-r), Professor of History of Religion and
Culture at Uludag University, and Mine Yildirim(r), Director of the
Freedom of Belief Initiative in Turkey at launch event of Guidelines on
the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities in Istanbul, 19
November. (OSCE/Marharyta Zhesko)
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