HUMAN RIGHTS
Participants at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting browse OSCE publications during a break.
(OSCE/Piotr Markowski)
events for the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation in Vienna. The first event, on 19 April, addressed
the economic and social rights of women who serve in
the armed forces. The second event, on 14 October,
focused on the role of ombuds institutions in protecting the rights of armed forces personnel.
In July, ODIHR organized an event entitled “Orientation on Oversight, Human Rights and Gender
in the Armed Forces” with the Georgian Parliamentary Defence Committee and Ministry of Defence.
The event was part of wider efforts to increase the
accountability, transparency and openness of the
security sector in Georgia. Also in July, ODIHR
trained 20 parliamentarians in Montenegro on
regional standards for combating violence against
women and the importance of a responsive security
sector in addressing the needs of women experiencing violence in the family.
ODIHR organized and hosted a meeting for civil
society on human rights monitoring in the armed
forces on 4 and 5 March in Warsaw. Mistreatment
and bullying, limitations on military associations,
a lack of human rights training and insufficient
oversight were reported as major concerns. A key
recommendation from the meeting was to increase
access by civil society to the security sector and
formalize its oversight role in human rights protection. Participants were also trained by ODIHR on
the basis of its Gender and Security Sector Reform
Toolkit.
In November, ODIHR, together with the European
Organisation of Military Associations (EUROMIL),
organized a meeting in Madrid on the role of military associations. Despite some progress, most
participants agreed that military personnel were still
restricted in their ability to form and join associations
in a number of participating States.
ODIHR implemented three short-term projects with
local NGO partners in Armenia, Moldova and Tajikistan, respectively, during the year. The projects in
Armenia and Moldova saw more than 800 potential and new conscripts trained on how to assert
their rights, seek assistance and report violations. In
Tajikistan, 368 physicians involved in conscription
48 / ODIHR Annual Report 2013
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