DEMOCRATIZATION Natalia Bourjaily (c), VicePresident – Eurasia for the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law and Member of the ODIHR/ Venice Comission Expert Working Group on Drafting Guidelines on Freedom of Association, presenting recommendations, Warsaw, 7 May. OSCE/Murat Gungor domestic violence have been or will be taken into account in the ongoing legislative reform process. Similarly throughout 2014, the national authorities of Austria, Moldova, Slovakia and Ukraine explicitly recognized the value of ODIHR’s legislative assistance to ­ongoing legislative drafting processes. Improving Legislative Efficiency and Transparency To assist OSCE participating States in efforts to improve their lawmaking processes, ODIHR has developed a methodology to conduct comprehensive lawmaking assessments. This methodology involves the preparation of an assessment report on the legislative framework regulating the legislative process and actual practice, followed by thematic workshops and the drafting of a regulatory reform roadmap with concrete action points. ODIHR also conducts preliminary assessment reports, which focus only on the legislative framework regulating lawmaking processes. In 2014, ODIHR produced a comprehensive legislative assessment report for Armenia. This assessment describes and assesses the constitutional, legal and organizational framework, and the practice of lawmaking in Armenia, and includes recommendations for reform to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of the lawmaking process. The Armenian comprehensive assessment was officially launched and presented on 30 October in ­Yerevan and will be followed by thematic workshops 30 ODIHR Annual Report 2014 focused on policymaking and legislative planning in 2015. A preliminary assessment of the legislative procedures of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, focusing on the legislative framework, was completed and presented on 2 June in Bishkek. As a consequence, the Presidential Administration of Kyrgyzstan requested that ODIHR initiate a comprehensive assessment of the lawmaking process in 2015. ODIHR continued its activities to facilitate the drafting and adoption of a Regulatory Roadmap in Serbia, which is the final step of the comprehensive assessment of the law-drafting and legislative process initiated in 2011. To this end, ODIHR organized a consolidating workshop focused on public participation, monitoring of implementation, evaluation and harmonization of lawmaking on 26 and 27 November in Belgrade, and presented a draft Roadmap to the Legislative Committee of the National Assembly on 18 December. Guidelines for Legislators ODIHR assists participating States by preparing legislative guidelines that outline how to regulate specific and often complex human dimension issues. Legislative guidelines, offering advice and expertise, and based on universal and regional human rights instruments and OSCE commitments, as well as established state practice and general principles of law, are drafted following an extensive consultative process involving expert participation