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.

Current ODIHR Legislative Assistance Activities

• The ODIHR is pleased to announce the launch of its newly remodelled and improved legal database, Legislationline.org. The database now contains an entire section devoted to lawmaking issues. This section, which is still under construction, aims at providing quick comparative information on issues relating to the legislative systems of OSCE participating States.

• On 5 November, a day before the opening of the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Democratic Law-making in Vienna, the ODIHR Legislative Support Unit is holding an Experts' Meeting on "Better Legislation in the OSCE region: Improving Lawmaking Processes, Instruments and Techniques". This meeting aims a consolidating the ODIHR methodology for responding to requests for assistance by OSCE participating States in improving the efficiency and transparency of their legislative systems.

• OSCE meeting to discuss ways to ensure democratic lawmaking.

  The process of lawmaking is the focus of an OSCE meeting that starts on Thursday in Vienna. Democratic lawmaking is not just about ensuring that laws are enacted by democratically elected representatives. It is also about ensuring that the public in general is given reasonable opportunities to contribute. The process whereby laws are prepared is as important as their content, because a more open, transparent and participatory process increases the likelihood that new laws will be well received, accepted and properly implemented. The meeting, organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship, will discuss ways to encourage and support initiatives to strengthen the transparency and inclusiveness of lawmaking processes.

• On 19-20 November 2008 the ODIHR in close cooperation with the OSCE Centre in Ashgabad and the National Institute for Democracy and human Rights of Turkmenistan will hold a workshop on "Evaluation and Oversight of Legislation". The workshop will bring together Turkmen governmental officials, high-ranked staff from the presidential administration, parliamentarians and high-level civil servants from the parliamentary administration, Supreme Court and other relevant state bodies

News

• Kazakhstan Plans to Reform the Law on Elections by End of the Year

   (30 November 2008)

  [Kazakhstan Today] Kazakhstan plans to reform the Law on Elections up to the end of 2008 with the assistance of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and other OSCE institutes. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Marat Tazhin said during the 15th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OSCE member states, the agency reports.

  In the report of M. Tazhin informed, "Kazakhstan continues the work on implementation of ODIHR recommendations in the election sphere and legislation concerning political parties. It is planned that on the basis of recommendations developed during the discussion, the Central Election Commission of Kazakhstan will prepare a package of recommendations, which will be considered by the government in 2008. The same year the bill prepared on the basis of the package of recommendations will be directed to the Majilis of the Parliament."

  According to the Foreign Minister within the limits of the last constitutional reform the powers of the local representative bodies have been expanded. Their place and the role in the general system of the government have been defined anew. In the context of future OSCE presidency of Kazakhstan effort of the state to improve the system of local self-government will be continued.

• Russia’s Upper House Has Approved a Bill Extending Presidential Terms from Four to Six Years

   (26 November 2008)

  Russia's upper house of parliament has approved a bill extending presidential terms from four to six years. The change to the constitution was backed by 144 members of the Federation Council. One senator voted against. The bill was last week adopted by the lower house, the State Duma. It must now be supported by Russia's regional parliaments to become law. The bill has been fast-tracked, (...).

  The bill also extends the mandate of the State Duma from four years to five.

  The constitutional change will only apply to the next president and the Kremlin says it is needed because the existing four-year term is too short to implement serious reforms in such a huge country.

  Read more on BBC News

• Romania: Romania adopts data retention law

   (19 November 2008)

  [www.edri.org] Following the adoption of the draft law on data retention by the Chamber of Deputies on 4 November 2008, the Romanian President made the final step in adopting the law on 17 November.

  From now on, it is just a matter of time until the law will be published in the Official Journal and until its entry into force (60 days from its publication date). The Internet-related data will be kept only starting with 15 March 2009. (...)

  The Commission on Human Rights of the Chamber of Deputies gave a negative vote to the law, but since its opinion was just consultative on this law, it really didn't matter in the end. Also, its report contains just the negative vote without any explanation on the matter.

  The president of the IT Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Pambuccian has presented the draft law to the Chamber plenum as the implementation of an "excessive directive", but obligatory according to the European law.

  But there weren't too many changes after the Parliamentary debates in the text submitted by the Government in February this year. The major change is the reduction of the retention time from one year to 6 months. The retained data can be accessed by prosecutors, with a proper judge-approved access authorization, only in penal cases related to organized crime and terrorism crimes, that are limited by the express list provided by the definition of serious crime.

  The law does not provide the reimbursement of the expenses incured by the law enforcement, but a new provision makes it specific that any expense for electronic communication providers related to this law application is fiscally deductible.

  Article 20 still raises concerns giving the "state institutions with attributions in the area of national security" access to the retained data under the conditions established by the "national legislation" in this domain. Since no express legislation is foreseen, this leaves an open door for further regulation in "national security" cases.

  The final draft still stipulates that an intentional access to the retained data or its transfer without a proper authorization is a crime punished with prison from one to 5 years.

• Poland Ratified the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention

   (17 November 2008)

  On 17 November Poland ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (CETS No. 197).

• Azerbaijan Signed Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation

   (17 November 2008)

  On 17 November Azerbaijan signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201).