Democratization Legislative Support All OSCE states face the challenge of ensuring that the laws they pass measure up to the purposes for which they were conceived. In addition to ensuring compliance with the relevant international standards, this also implies the process of developing legislation as well as the adequate tools for their application. This requires in turn that laws be prepared, drafted, adopted, and publicized through several clearly defined stages and within a pre-determined time frame. Only such a properly managed process allows for thorough discussions of the draft at each of its steps, as well as the performance of certain verifications. Ultimately, the real test of a law’s effectiveness is its implementation: how it is treated by law enforcement, how it is interpreted by the courts, and how it is respected or implemented by the target population. In lending support to OSCE states in the development of sound legislation, the ODIHR first focuses on helping lawmakers draft legislation that complies with the relevant international standards on a particular issue in all areas of the human dimension. During the law-drafting stage, ODIHR experts provide advice on how to ensure that international standards are properly reflected, while also sharing the experiences of practices from other countries that have dealt with similar issues. Drafting a good law, however, is only half the work. Experience has shown that the most effective and efficient laws are the result of a legislative process that is composed of several stages such as policy analysis, evaluating draft legislation before it is adopted, gathering input from those who will be affected by the legislation, and monitoring how the legislation is implemented. Work in the area of legislative processes is continuously being developed by the ODIHR. In addition to providing advice on the substantive drafting of legislation, the Office has also begun ANNUAL REPORT 2005 assisting states in the development of effective, open, and transparent legislative processes. Main Issues k Insufficient knowledge of international standards: Governments in the OSCE region are not always fully aware of all the consequences for the legal system at the national level of the treaties, conventions, and other international instruments that they have ratified. Experience has shown that international human rights norms are not always properly interpreted or sufficiently reflected in domestic legislation. This applies in particular to narrowly defined limitation clauses in human rights treaties. k Lack of resources and technical knowledge: Legislators sometimes lack the resources and technical knowledge needed to draft legislation, particularly in areas where there are no domestic precedents. With limited exposure to practices and legal options from other countries, lawmakers rely on familiar concepts and models rather than adapting to new challenges, even where those models fail to address the task at hand. k Inefficient and non-transparent legislative processes: In a number of countries, there is insufficient awareness of the need to manage the legislative process in its entirety, as opposed to relying on fragmented rules and inadequately co-ordinated procedures. Often, laws are adopted without the involvement of those who will eventually be affected by the law. Or a law will be hastily adopted without first being evaluated at the drafting stage. More often than not, the result is ineffective legislation that fails to fulfil the purpose for which it was adopted. 45