Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

The ODIHR promotes dialogue between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) defending victims of hate-motivated violence by organizing joint roundtable discussions and trainings to facilitate the exchange of good practices, transmit knowledge and experience, and build coalitions on specific topics.

The ODIHR has identified more than 400 NGOs working in the area of tolerance and non-discrimination, many working on promoting intercultural dialogue.

Prior to the OSCE's first Tolerance Implementation Meeting in Almaty in June 2006, the ODIHR organized an NGO event to give an opportunity for all NGOs working to counter racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance including against Muslims and Roma to collaborate on common issues of intolerance and to identify common solutions to their common problems.

In addition, the ODIHR is considering specific outreach with NGOs dealing with discrimination against Christians and members of other religions in order to identify key issues of concerns for them in the OSCE region and to encourage the inclusion of such concerns at relevant OSCE forums.