A/HRC/20/27 47. The Special Rapporteur further considers as best practices training materials developed with a view to preventing discriminatory treatment and measures against women, minors, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, individuals and groups of individuals belonging to minorities and other marginalized groups (e.g. Mexico, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain). 4. Monitoring peaceful assemblies 48. The Special Rapporteur refers to the report to the General Assembly of the then Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, who stated that “monitoring of assemblies can provide an impartial and objective account of what takes place, including a factual record of the conduct of both participants and law enforcement officials. This is a valuable contribution to the effective enjoyment of the right to peaceful assembly. The very presence of human rights monitors during demonstrations can deter human rights violations. It is therefore important to allow human rights defenders to operate freely in the context of freedom of assembly” (A/62/225, para. 91).30 Such defenders include members of civil society organizations, journalists, “citizen journalists”, bloggers and representatives of national human rights institutions. 49. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur considers good practice the invitation of the London Metropolitan Police to Liberty, an independent human rights organization, to act as independent observers when they were policing a Trades Union Congress march in London in 2010. He also refers to the statement of the Vice-Chair of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) made during the panel discussion on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, at the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/19/40, para. 33). The Vice-Chair highlighted, inter alia, the monitoring role played by SUHAKAM during a sensitive public demonstration, by deploying teams of observers. 50. In this connection, the Special Rapporteur supports the call of the ODIHR Panel of Experts to undertake capacity-building activities for the benefit of NGOs and human rights defenders on the ground to monitor assemblies and their policing on a systematic basis. In this context, ODIHR trained assembly monitors in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Republic of Moldova, and issued the new Handbook on Monitoring Freedom of Assembly in September 2011.31 C. Best practices related to the right to freedom of association 1. Definition of an association 51. An “association” refers to any groups of individuals or any legal entities brought together in order to collectively act, express, promote, pursue or defend a field of common interests (see report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, A/59/401, para. 46). 52. The word “association” refers, inter alia, to civil society organizations, clubs, cooperatives, NGOs, religious associations, political parties, trade unions, foundations or even online associations as the Internet has been instrumental, for instance, in “facilitating active citizen participation in building democratic societies” (A/HRC/17/27, para. 2). The Special Rapporteur underscores that these various types of associations are, in most cases, regulated by different types of legislations. As he has mainly received information 30 31 A/62/225, para. 91. OSCE/ODIHR, 2011, Warsaw. Available from www.osce.org/odihr/82979. 13