Participants in an OSCE roundtable meeting on freedom of association in Central Asia, Bishkek, 21 October. (OSCE/Malik Alymkuloff) 26 States will find it difficult, if not impossible, to fulfil their OSCE commitments. Thus, ODIHR provides support to participating States to help them foster and sustain democratic institutions, such as political parties and parliaments. Part of this democratic culture is concerned with how societies treat women. In many OSCE participating States, women face a variety of barriers that hinder their full participation in public life. ODIHR’s work is aimed at fostering a culture of respect for equal rights and opportunities for women and men to participate in political and public life. Pluralist Democracy: Political Parties Pluralist democracies require stable political parties to function properly. Nonetheless, surveys show that trust in political parties is low among the general public across the OSCE region. In the past, ODIHR worked directly with political parties to promote inter-party dialogue and self-assessment. While this approach proved valuable in specific circumstances, it was not without its limitations. Thus, ODIHR changed course in 2009, launching a new programme that concentrates on the legislative and regulatory frameworks for political parties and which will use as its focus the above-mentioned guidelines on legislation pertaining to political parties. As part of this approach, ODIHR commissioned country reports analysing the legislative frameworks for political parties in a sample of OSCE participating Democratization States. These studies will be used as a basis for activities in 2010. Strengthening Parliaments Parliaments in the OSCE region that are new or inexperienced often need assistance to cement their role as a check on the executive branch. While the precise weaknesses exhibited differ on a case-by-case basis, practice has shown that parliamentarians may lack the skills needed to effectively draft or review laws or revise budgets. At the same time, parliamentary secretariats sometimes lack the capacity to provide policy analysis or research to support parliamentary committees. There may also be other issues, such as outdated rules of procedure or a lack of contacts with other parliaments that would aid networking or policy-related dialogue. The OSCE has accumulated considerable experience in delivering parliamentary assistance through its field operations in South-Eastern Europe. In the past, ODIHR’s role in this area was limited to facilitating meetings of the officers responsible for programmes to strengthen parliaments. In 2009, however, ODIHR began preparations aimed at consolidating its role as a repository of information, lessons learned and best practices in implementing parliamentary-support programmes and projects undertaken by OSCE field operations. As a first step, ODIHR began collecting information on existing and past programmes implemented by OSCE field operations in order to produce an initial mapping of activities. Based on this information, in late ODIHR Annual Report 2009