Publications

The Guidelines offer a comprehensive toolkit for policy- and lawmakers on how to improve their legislative process to tackle contemporary lawmaking challenges head-on and to promote more openness, transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and participation at all stages of the legislative cycle. The Guidelines are an effective instrument to ensure that lawmaking processes and adopted legislation are human rights-compliant, accessible, non-discriminatory, gender-responsive and sensitive to the needs of diverse social groups. The Guidelines also emphasize the fundamental role that non-governmental organizations play throughout the lawmaking process and can serve as an advocacy tool for civil society to ensure that the people affected by legislation are informed about, and have a say in shaping its contents. It is our hope that these Guidelines will be a useful source of information and will provide users with practical, hands-on advice on how to reform their legislative rules and practices in compliance with international human rights and rule of law standards and OSCE commitments, leading to better-quality laws. Their ultimate goal is to empower decision makers to develop legislation that truly serves the people.