Urdur Gunnarsdottir
The Responsibility to
Implement
2007
was a demanding year for the
OSCE and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
In the fifth year of my tenure as Director, we
continued along the path of adjusting our activities to fit the changing challenges of our time,
with the goal of realizing the commitment of
the OSCE’s 56 participating States to protect
human rights, strengthen the rule of law, and
ensure pluralistic democracy.
Since I took office in 2003, I have focused
particularly on three objectives: enhancing the
4
Annual Report 2007
Office’s capacity to fulfil its mandate, strengthening leadership and focus for the Office, and
developing outreach to all our partners. Consequently, we have moved away from one-year
project-planning cycles to multi-year, long-term
programming in our assistance activities. This
has enabled us to set more ambitious goals and
to become more transparent and predictable.
In addition, we have mainstreamed a number
of cross-cutting issues into our work. Gender
aspects are now reflected in our work across all
departments, and most programmes, whether