OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev Democratization themselves unequivocally to upholding the right to a fair trial and to ensuring the proper administration of their criminal justice systems. ODIHR supports exchanges of views and experience on policy and reform issues affecting the implementation of OSCE commitments, utilizing one of its main institutional strengths: its mandate to work across the OSCE area and facilitate the sharing of experiences between participating States. In June 2008, ODIHR presented a preliminary report following a trial monitoring project focusing on jury trials in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh authorities acknowledged the value of the findings presented and the technical assistance provided by ODIHR in implementing the recommendations. Kazakhstan also hosted the annual ODIHR Expert Forum on Criminal Justice in Central Asia (formerly the Summer School on Criminal Justice), which was held in September in the city of Zerenda. More than 40 criminal-justice practitioners, officials and experts from across Central Asia met for three days to discuss criminal justice reform in the region. The participants considered new legislation for remand custody in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as the challenges and prospects for the drafting of new criminal procedure legislation in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The forum also identified the need to assist governments in decriminalizing offences more commonly covered by administrative codes in other participating States or to provide appropriate criminal procedural safeguards for their investigation and adjudication. ODIHR also supported the activities of the Legal Policy Research Centre, an Almaty-based NGO that has moved policy debate on criminal justice reform forward in Kazakhstan and throughout the region. The numerous events held and analytical reviews of draft legislation produced by the centre have raised the profile of reform issues in the criminal justice sector. Following post-election violence in Yerevan in March 2008, ODIHR extended its presence Participants at the Supplementary Human Dimension meeting on democratic lawmaking, in Vienna, 6 November 2008. Annual Report 2008 21