Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

This report identifies patterns of human rights violations affecting human rights defenders in the OSCE area in the period from April 2006 to April 2007.

The first ODIHR report of this kind, it is a result of a number of OSCE human dimension meetings that highlighted the situation of human rights defenders and is part of the work of the ODIHR's Focal Point for Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions. The Focal Point was created in response to these meetings in order to monitor the situation of human rights defenders, to identify issues of concern, and to promote their interests, together with strengthening co-operation with national human rights institutions.