Democratization • 17
the Ministry of Interior in the region or
directly co-operating with war crimes
prosecutors, investigators in war
crimes cases face a number of practical challenges that the exchange of
experiences and good practices can
help mitigate.
In December,
ODIHR published
the Final Report of
WCJP II, to be disseminated to stakeholders to share
this experience and
relevant lessons
learned. Between
July 2012 and December 2015, ODIHR
conducted 16 activities, including training seminars, peer-to-peer meetings
and an international conference, in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Events also took
place Kosovo. These activities involved
409 legal actors (including 168 women) involved in war crimes cases,
such as judges, prosecutors, defence
attorneys, witness support providers and war crimes investigators, as
well as representatives of NGOs and
academia.
Electoral Dispute Resolution
On 9 and 10 March 2015, ODIHR hosted a regional roundtable in Warsaw on
existing practices in electoral dispute
resolution, attended by more than 35
state representatives and members of
civil society from the South Caucasus
and Eastern Europe. The discussion
focused on three main challenges: the
availability of legal redress, respect for
due process and the effectiveness of
remedies. Representatives of election bodies and courts from Eastern
Europe and the South Caucasus provided information on how they dealt
with complaints filed in their jurisdictions in the context of elections.
Improving Legislative Efficiency
and Transparency
To assist OSCE participating States in
their efforts to improve their lawmaking processes, ODIHR has developed
a methodology to conduct comprehensive assessments of the legislative
process and actual practice, followed
by the holding of thematic workshops
and the creation of regulatory reform
roadmaps, with concrete action points
for national reform.
In 2015, reports on the comprehensive
assessments of the legislative process
in Georgia and in Kyrgyzstan were
launched in June and December 2015,
respectively. These reports analyse
the legislative and practical aspects
of the lawmaking processes in these
countries, and provide practical recommendations for reform to enhance
their effectiveness, efficiency, openness, inclusiveness and transparency. Relevant stakeholders welcomed
both reports as realistic depictions of
the main challenges in the lawmaking systems of these countries and as
excellent starting points for discussing
possible reforms.
In 2015, following the launch of the
Report on the Comprehensive Assessment of the Legislative Process in the
Republic of Armenia in October 2014,
Tina Gewis (l), Chief of ODIHR’s Rule of Law Unit with Richard Lappin,
Senior Election Advisor from ODIHR at regional roundtable on
electoral dispute resolution in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus,
in Warsaw, Poland, 10 March 2015. (OSCE/Murat Gungor)
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