[ Democratization ] government and strengthening democracy. ODIHR’s experience in providing assistance to participating States on individual pieces of legislation has demonstrated that the shortcomings of individual laws are often the result of shortcomings in the lawmaking system. Therefore, in 2005, ODIHR began developing a methodology to address cases where lawmaking processes do not function adequately. According to this methodology, assistance is provided following a comprehensive assessment of the legislative process in a participating State, in order to gain a detailed understanding of the specifics of the legislative system and tailor assistance to the needs identified. Subsequent to the publication in 2010 of ODIHR’s “Preliminary Assessment Report on the Legislative System of the Republic of Serbia”, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia requested, in March 2011, that ODIHR carry out a comprehensive assessment of the country’s lawmaking process, focusing on the legal framework and existing practices, and provide detailed recommendations on how the system could be improved. The Office agreed with the National Assembly’s Legislative Committee that the assessment would include an evaluation of the regulatory framework; of the structure, methods and levels of interaction among lawmaking bodies; and of the mechanisms and procedures in place for preparing, drafting, adopting, assessing, publishing and monitoring the implementation of legislation. The anticipated outcome of this assessment is the promotion of a home-grown, comprehensive reform process for national decision makers, followed by a series of thematic workshops in Serbia in 2012. The workshops will focus on challenges identified in the report to be published in early 2012 and possible solutions in light of the experience and practices of Serbia and other OSCE participating States, particularly those that have recently joined the European Union. The “Conference on Better Regulation in Eastern Europe”, held on 20 and 21 October in Tbilisi, in co-operation with Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Georgian Ministry of Justice, and a workshop on “Interaction of Government and Parliament through Different Stages of the Legislative Process and Participatory Approach to Law Making”, held on 23 November in Bishkek in, cooperation with the OSCE Office in Bishkek, were also important activities to promote awareness of democratic lawmaking processes. Guidelines for Legislators ODIHR assists legislators from the OSCE participating States through the development of guidelines on specific and, often, complex legislative issues. These guidelines offer advice and expertise on the regulation of specific areas in the human dimension, based on universal and regional treaties on the protection of 28 ODIHR Annual Report 2011 human rights and fundamental freedoms, evolving state practice and general principles of law, all of which are recognized by the OSCE participating States in their human dimension commitments. Each set of guidelines is drafted through an extensive consultative process involving expert discussions and thematic roundtables with key stakeholders from a wide array of OSCE participating States. Recognizing the great diversity of legal traditions across the OSCE area, the guidelines do not seek to provide blanket solutions or to aid in the development of a single model for all OSCE participating States. Rather, they are intended to clarify key issues related to the respective subject matter and provide examples of good practices. ODIHR guidelines are usually prepared in co-ordination with the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission. In February, the Office presented the ODIHR-Venice Commission Guidelines on Political Party Regulation to OSCE delegations in Vienna, and both the English- and Russian-language editions were shared with participants in a Human Dimension Seminar from 18 to 20 May in Warsaw, where the publication was launched officially. Work also continued in 2011 on revision of the ODIHR Guidelines for the Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief, originally published in 2004. Access to Law Legislators often operate in a narrow legal space, and their work is sometimes impeded by a scarcity of locally available legal resources. ODIHR’s legislative database, www.legislationline.org, improves access to laws and the sharing of good practices and precedents from other jurisdictions by providing a thematically structured online compilation of international standards and domestic laws from OSCE participating States related to the OSCE’s human dimension. The website has interfaces in English and Russian, but collects legislation in all official OSCE languages. The site also contains all ODIHR reviews on draft and existing legislation, as well as on lawmaking processes.