Legislationline.org provides direct access to international norms and standards relating to specific human dimension issues (see list of topics on left-hand column) as well as to domestic legislation and other documents of relevance to these issues. These data and other information available from the site are intended for lawmakers across the OSCE region.                              

Legislationline.org is being currently updated.

The Legislative Support Unit has started uploading legislation under the section "Democratic Lawmaking", which will include laws, regulations and guidelines of OSCE participating States, in this realm. In January 2012 the relevant excerpts from Constitutions of Albania, Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Uzbekistan were uploaded. Some subordinate legislation was also posted for the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Montenegro.

The OSCE/ODIHR has recently produced the following legal reviews:

Opinion on the draft Law of the Republic of Serbia on Restrictions on Disposal of Property with the Aim of Preventing Terrorism (5 January 2012)

On 28 November 2011, the Director of the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia addressed the OSCE Mission to Serbia with a request for legal expertise on a new draft law on Restrictions on Disposal of Property with the Aim of Preventing Terrorism. The draft Law had been developed in order to implement relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions in relation to the freezing of terrorist assets. As per established procedure, the OSCE Mission to Serbia forwarded the request to OSCE/ODIHR. The Opinion was completed and submitted to the Serb authorities in early January 2012.


Joint Opinion on the draft Law on amendments and additions to the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens (22 December 2011)

The Joint Opinion was prepared by OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission, at the request of the first deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia.  The Joint Opinion reviews draft amendments introducing a number of anti-corruption and enhanced control and reporting provisions, such as a ban on corporate donations, the introduction of a requirement for bank wire transfers of donations, and the inclusion of the Control Chamber (Auditing Office) as a body controlling reports filed by political parties.  The Joint Opinion was adopted at the 89th Plenary Session of the Venice Commission (16-17 December 2011).

Review of the Legislation Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Republic Moldova (14 December 2011)
In mid-2011, the OSCE Mission to Moldova forwarded to the ODIHR a request received from the Director of the Moldovan Centre to Combat Trafficking in Persons (under the Ministry of Interior), in which the Director informed the OSCE Mission about the contents of the Implementation Plan of the EU-Moldova Action Plan in the field of visa liberalization for 2011-2012. This Implementation Plan, among other things, obliges the Moldovan Government to obtain international expertise on the existing legal framework in the field of combating trafficking in human beings, and present relevant recommendations for improvement. The Director asked the OSCE Mission for assistance in finding foreign experts to offer comments on the above legal framework and provide requisite recommendations for amending/enhancing national anti-trafficking legislation. ODIHR thereupon undertook a thorough and comprehensive review of all (primary and secondary) legislation related to the combat of trafficking in human beings and issued its final review and recommendations on 14 December 2011.

 

ODIHR's work on legislative guidelines:

Second edition of the OSCE/ODIHR - Venice Commission Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly (2010), endorsed by the Venice Commission in June 2010, was launched by Legislative Support Unit on 4 October 2010 during a side event at the OSCE Review Conference in Warsaw. The Guidelines are designed for practitioners in many sectors: drafters of legislation and those implementing it, as well as those affected by the implementation. Recognizing the great diversity of country contexts, the Guidelines do not attempt to provide ready-made solutions but, rather, to clarify key issues and discuss possible ways to address them.

OSCE/ODIHR - Venice Commission Guidelines on Political Party Regulation
The Guidelines on Political Party Regulation were developed by the OSCE/ODIHR jointly with the Venice Commission through an extensive consultative process, which included two expert meetings and three thematic roundtables on issues such as women's political participation; public funding of political parties and abuse of state resources; and the participation of political parties in elections and the prohibition and dissolution of political parties.  The primary goal of the Guidelines is to assist law-makers and practitioners from various OSCE participating States in the crucial matter of ensuring a fair regulation of political parties.  Following the adoption of the Guidelines, in September 2011 the OSCE/ODIHR set up an advisory body, the Core Group of Experts on Political Parties, which will assist it in providing expert assistance to OSCE participating States in the review and assessment of political party legislation.