Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), speaking during
the first Ukrainian Women's Congress held in Kyiv on 22 and 23
November 2017, as Ivanna Klympusz-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s Vice Prime
Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration (left) and Iryna
Herashchenko, First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada,
listen. 22 November 2017. (OSCE/Lana Ackar).
Political Life. The Office also supported
greater participation of Roma and
Sinti youth in political processes by
empowering young people.
ODIHR continued to actively work
towards promoting gender equality
and women’s rights, including by taking a lead role in the first Ukrainian
Women’s Congress, focusing on
advancing women’s rights, and by
publishing a practical guide for participating States on gender-sensitive
legislation. Building on the momentum surrounding the #MeToo campaign, our Office called on states
and will continue to call on states
and other stakeholders to leverage the campaign to address gender-based violence, sexual assault
and harassment.
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) outside a polling
station in Kyrgyzstan during the election observation mission there,
15 October 2017. (OSCE)
In recent years many participating
States have experienced above average migration into their countries.
To support participating States in
their efforts to integrate migrants
into their societies and protect
migrants rights and freedom of
movement, ODIHR organized events
for over 750 participants on migration and freedom of movement-related topics. ODIHR also published
three policy studies on aspects of
migrant integration to inform policy-making and implementation.
150 prominent activists to an event
in Budapest that equipped participants with skills to effectively mobilize public support for human rights
issues using new technologies and
communication strategies. Many
human rights defenders do not have
institutional support and, therefore,
rely on social media and other new
technologies to amplify their own
voices and raise awareness of human
rights violations and concerns in
their countries. ODIHR is supporting
them in their efforts to do this.
It is with great concern that we
have observed attacks on human
rights defenders increasing across
the OSCE region in recent years.
In 2017, ODIHR supported the
vital – but far too often dangerous
– work of human rights defenders by, for example, inviting over
Combatting intolerance and discrimination continues to be a challenge
in our region with ODIHR’s efforts
focusing on strongly and effectively countering hate crimes as well
as specific forms of intolerance,
including racism and xenophobia,