Democratization: Rule of Law Law professor Daniyar Kanafin speaks at the ODIHR Summer School on Criminal Justice, IOSIF BUDNEVICH Almaty, 7 August. and training programmes to build the capacity of legal professionals, with a special emphasis on strengthening the role of defence lawyers in the administration of justice. Defence lawyers, who play a crucial role in ensuring protection of the right to a fair trial, have not traditionally been the focus of the international community’s assistance programmes. Insufficient numbers of criminal defence lawyers and their poor professional training in some countries undermine the ability of defendants to get a fair trial. In 2006, the ODIHR supported the Continuing Training Centre at the Almaty City Collegium of Advocates, the largest regional defence bar in Kazakhstan with over 600 members. The ODIHR funded a series of advanced seminars in July and August that were conducted by national trainers and addressed practical aspects of criminal, administrative, and civil law, and also taught the special skills needed in the courtroom for lawyers to represent their clients and defend their rights effectively. In the South Caucasus, the ODIHR continued to support the reform of the bar and raised awareness among decision makers and legal professionals of the need for increasing the number of defence lawyers to ensure the functioning of the judicial system, as a shortage of defence lawyers is one impediment to effective access to justice. In recent years, the laws on advocates and the organizational structure of the advocate chambers have been amended in all the countries of the region, with varying results. Although the situation has improved in some aspects, these countries still have a shortage of criminal defence lawyers. The ODIHR continued to render expert advice in relation to legislative reforms aimed at creating a unified bar (advokatura) in Kyrgyzstan. Under a poorly conceived reform in the 1990s, all unified structures for defence lawyers in Kyrgyzstan were abolished, triggering a rapid decrease in the quality of services provided. Following up on two expert assessments of the draft law in 2005, the ODIHR, upon the request of the authorities, produced an updated comment in 2006 on the draft law on the reform of the advokatura and took part in a series of consultations related to this law. The Office is currently assisting with the facilitation of discussions on organizational modalities related to the establishment of the unified bar in Kyrgyzstan. This assistance includes expert advice based on best practices from other OSCE participating States. The reunification of the bar will be a significant step in improving Kyr- Annual Report  27