aimed at promoting various aspects of the right to a fair trial, including trial-monitoring, which seeks to fa- The ODIHR’s monitoring mandate cilitate transparency and improve the credibility of the legal system and also provides independent and impar- The ODIHR's goal in the field of human rights is to sup- tial reports on compliance with international and do- port and strengthen respect for human rights and fun- mestic fair-trial standards. damental freedoms across the OSCE region. To achieve this, the ODIHR monitors the implementation of OSCE
Death penalty: There is an increasing trend to- human dimension commitments, and it also conducts wards abolition of the death penalty in the OSCE re- research and analysis to better understand the human- gion. At the same time, those participating States that rights situation and obstacles to its improvement in retain the death penalty have committed themselves participating States. to employing it only in a manner that does not contravene international standards. In some participating Peer review meetings States, these standards are not always adhered to, and, The primary focus of the ODIHR's monitoring work is in in particular, there are concerns about the imposition preparing and organizing OSCE yearly peer review of the death penalty following trials that fail to comply meetings on the implementation of human dimension with fair-trial standards. The lack of transparency in commitments by participating States, including Human some states that retain the death penalty is also cause Dimension Implementation Meetings, Human Dimen- for serious concern. Moreover, the level of public dis- sion Seminars, and Supplementary Human Dimension course on the use of the death penalty is often limited. Meetings. These serve as a forum for an exchange of views on the implementation of human dimension commitments among participating States, NGOs, and Activities international organizations and are designed to evaluate the procedures for monitoring compliance with In 2004, the ODIHR focused on the following areas: commitments. The ODIHR contributes substantively to
Monitoring the observance of human dimension these meetings by producing background materials commitments; that look at the compliance of participating States with Ensuring respect for human rights in the fight certain of their OSCE human dimension commitments. against terrorism; and For example, the ODIHR produces an annual publica- Human-rights training and education. tion entitled The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area,

which is distributed at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. 1. Monitoring the observance of human dimension commitments Clearing house for states of public emergency The ODIHR was designated by the Concluding Document of Helsinki (1992) as the OSCE’s clearing house for information on states of public emergency. Paragraph 28.10 of the Moscow Document (1991) requires participating States to notify the ODIHR when a state of public emergency is declared or lifted, as well as of any derogation made from the state’s international human 52