In this report, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) provides an overview and analysis of critical challenges faced by human rights defenders in the OSCE region, as well as good practices by OSCE participating States in their protection. The report also provides recommendations of how to close identified protection gaps, which should be considered in conjunction with the ODIHR Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Guidelines).

In and of themselves, the Guidelines are a comprehensive set of recommendations to States, reflecting international standards. This report assesses implementation of those standards by OSCE participating States in the two-year period following the June 2014 publication of the Guidelines.

The publication of this report on the margins of the OSCE's Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (11-22 September 2017) highlights the critical importance of renewing attention to the protection of human rights defenders -- restrictions, threats and attacks against whom have continued to increase in severity and frequency, despite the publication of ODIHR's Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in June 2014.

More detailed information on LGBTI Human Rights Defenders on page 56.