Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel Foreword Sixteen years ago, ODIHR and DCAF started to work on a handbook compiling existing common standards, models and good practices on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of armed forces personnel in the OSCE region. Since the Handbook was published in 2008, considerable progress has been made in the realm of human rights of armed forces personnel, with the Handbook itself contributing to developing common standards and spurring action in this area among both OSCE participating States and beyond. With these developments in mind, we sought to build on the impressive foundation that was established in 2008 by collecting and compiling developments made since then. In 2021, as it was the case in 2008, the armed forces continue to play a key role in defending a democratic state and society by enabling a security environment that allows every individual to enjoy the inalienable human rights and fundamental freedoms to which s/he is entitled. As representatives of the state structure, armed forces personnel are bound to respect human rights and international humanitarian law in the exercise of their duties. But only when their rights are guaranteed within their own institution will armed forces personnel be likely to uphold these rights in the discharge of their tasks — both when in the barracks and during operations. Given the unique nature of armed forces personnel, derogations from some human rights can occur. Such derogations can be justified by the need to maintain military discipline or to ensure the neutrality of the armed forces in the public sphere, for instance. However, back in 2008 and even more so today there is broad recognition among democratic societies that all members of the armed forces - career servicemen and - women or conscripts - should be treated as “citizens in uniform”. This means that they are in principle entitled to the same human rights and fundamental freedoms as all other citizens. As a consequence, derogations must always meet strict requirements of legality, proportionality, non-discrimination and necessity. This approach is reflected in the seminal document that informs this whole Compendium, the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, adopted by all participating States in 1994, which requires states to “reflect in their laws or other documents the rights and duties of armed forces personnel” and to “ensure that the military, paramilitary and security forces personnel will be able to enjoy and exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms”. It also requires participating States to “provide appropriate legal and administrative procedures to protect the rights of all its forces personnel”. Ensuring that the human rights of armed forces personnel are respected is also a matter of effectiveness. In an evolving security landscape in which modern warfare is often fought in amorphous, urbanized conflicts and where the distinction between combatants and the civilian populations is often difficult, it is essential that every single member of the armed forces has a deep awareness and profound knowledge of human rights. Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that the armed forces are drawn from, and reflective of, society. By embracing wider societal, cultural or legal realities and developments, the military avoids insulating itself from society. As the armed forces should ideally be a reflection of the diversity of society, it is important that these forces embrace all groups within a given society, including ethnic, racial, linguistic and other minorities. In order to achieve this, institutional barriers to the recruitment 16