in Europe,16 the Council’s Conference of International Non-governmental Organisations established an Expert Council on NGO Law. The council’s mandate is to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for NGOs throughout Europe by examining national NGO laws and their implementation. Its purpose is to provide advice on how to bring national law and practice into line with Council of Europe standards and European good practice and to propose ways in which those standards could be further developed. The council’s first report was discussed at the Conference of International Non-governmental Organisations’ plenary session in October 2008.17 The EU is currently reviewing its guidelines on protecting human rights defenders18 and the local implementation strategies on human rights defenders that have been developed in several countries. The EU has addressed issues related to human rights defenders in the framework of its political dialogue with some non-EU countries. It is expected that this process, which is being carried out by the European Commission, will further the EU’s ability to promote and protect human rights defenders.19 International and OSCE standards on human rights defenders 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Despite the adoption of these declarations, in both cases by a unanimous UN General Assembly, there has been repeated lack of consensus by participating States in recent years with regard to adopting additional commitments on human rights defenders at OSCE Ministerial Council meetings. One participating State disagreed with the drafting of this report, arguing that, inter alia, ODIHR lacks a mandate to deal with the issue.20 In this context, ODIHR is bound by the fact that the issue of human rights defenders forms an integral part of OSCE commitments, which provide a number of specific standards on the issue. Since the beginning of the so-called Helsinki Process in the 1970s, participating States have recognized the importance of the Universal Declaration as a normative point of reference. By including a specific reference to it in the Decalogue of the Helsinki Final Act, they committed themselves to protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, and also highlighted the importance of ensuring that these rights and freedoms are known to everyone and that those involved in promoting human rights would be protected. The recognition of the role that civil society and NGOs play in promoting respect for human rights was first reflected in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and has been reaffirmed since then in many OSCE commitments.21 OSCE documents specifically mention the need for the protection of human rights defenders.22 In 1994, participating States indicated that they were looking forward to the completion and adoption of the then-draft UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and that, in the context of participating States’ “determination to guarantee 16 “Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to the member states on the legal status for nongovernmental organisations in Europe”, Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation CM/Rec (2007)14, 10 October 2007. 17 “Conditions of Establishment of Non-Governmental Organisations”, Expert Council on NGO Law, first annual report, OING Conf/Exp (2008) 4, 26 September 2008. 18 See Annex IX of this report. 19 Information provided by the Slovenian EU presidency, 4 June 2008. 20 Response to ODIHR from the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE, 6 June 2008. 21 See Annex III. 22 Budapest 1994, op. cit., note 2, para. 18. 9