Annex IV: ODIHR’s Focal Point for Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions Systematic work with civil society is a key element of all programmes conducted by ODIHR. One of ODIHR’ s core activities involves monitoring the implementation of human dimension commitments, as well as lending assistance to participating States, where needed. This involves monitoring the capacity of human rights defenders and national human rights institutions to operate, especially in challenging circumstances. ODIHR also helps improve the skills of human rights defenders by providing education and training on human rights issues. Independent national human rights institutions can play a crucial role in advancing and securing human rights. Working with human rights defenders, they foster a national culture of human rights and serve as a respected independent voice. There is a need to promote the establishment of independent national human rights institutions where they do not exist and to support them where they do. Since its establishment in 2006, ODIHR’ s focal point for human rights defenders and national human rights institutions (the focal point) has been monitoring the situation of defenders throughout the OSCE region. In its 2007 report, Human Rights Defenders in the OSCE Region: Our Collective Conscience, ODIHR identified the situation of human rights defenders as an issue of major concern.217 The report focused on patterns of violations affecting human rights defenders, namely continuing physical attacks on defenders, whether actual or threatened; the curtailment of the freedom of association of defenders; the failure to respect and protect human rights defenders’ freedom of assembly; and the often severe restrictions placed on the freedom of movement and right to liberty of defenders. The report provided a number of recommendations on how OSCE commitments related to the work of human rights defenders could be implemented more comprehensively. In designing and implementing its activities, the focal point consults with other international organizations, in particular the Council of Europe and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the UN secretary-general’ s special rapporteur on human rights defenders. The focal point is in regular contact with a number of international and national NGOs active in this field. The focal point promotes the interests of human rights defenders by: • Assessing the needs of national human rights institutions and human rights defenders and the prevailing circumstances as they affect civil society; • Supporting OSCE field operations to strengthen their engagement with human rights defenders and national human rights institutions; • Working closely with other relevant intergovernmental agencies and national and international NGOs involved in supporting the work of human rights defenders and national human rights institutions; • Giving support to, and strengthening the capacity of, human rights defenders and national human rights institutions; • Fostering interaction and co-operation between national human rights institutions and human rights defenders; and 217 Human Rights Defenders in the OSCE Region, ODIHR, op. cit., note 1. 64