Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations Objectives This publication – Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel: Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations – focuses on the human rights and fundamental freedoms enjoyed by members of the armed forces. The compendium is not aimed at setting new standards; instead, it seeks to contribute to the effective implementation of existing standards by presenting a number of models, or good practices, from within the OSCE region that demonstrate how military structures can successfully integrate human rights and fundamental freedoms. At the same time, necessary limitations on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of armed forces personnel are taken into account, bearing in mind the requirements of military life and national security. While recognizing that there is no single applicable model, and that the particularities of individual contexts will always influence a given country’s approach, this compendium provides guidance to OSCE participating States by advancing models that have proven successful. Scope Human rights In this compendium, human rights are clustered into four groups: (1) civil and political rights, (2) rights related to equal opportunities and non-discrimination in the armed forces, (3) rights related to military life and (4) procedural rights related to implementing and ensuring human rights in the barracks. They are addressed in each chapter with respect to the issues at stake, international human rights standards, different national approaches and good practices, and recommendations on ensuring that human rights are respected. Each chapter also contains several boxes that illustrate the laws, policies and practices found in participating States. The compendium focuses specifically on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of armed forces personnel. It does not deal with respect for human rights by armed forces personnel in the execution of their operations. Therefore, the impact of the conduct of armed forces personnel on civilians remains outside the scope of this compendium. Similarly, the compendium deals with peacetime situations only. Hence, armed forces personnel deployed abroad, such as on peacekeeping operations, and at home during crisis or emergency situations do not fall within its scope. Armed forces Although the OSCE Code of Conduct refers in its provisions to “military, paramilitary and security forces” (for example, in paragraph 32), this compendium focuses on members of the armed forces. The reason for this is that “military, paramilitary and security forces” can quite easily be interpreted as including all elements of a state’s security sector, including the 23