DEMOCRATIZATION Armenia’s Deputy Justice Minister Ruben Melikyan addresses participants of an OSCE/ODIHR-organized workshop on strengthening the rights of defendants in criminal cases, Yerevan, 19 March 2013. (Vahram Baghdasaryan) supported the publication of Court Monitoring Methodology, a booklet describing the trial-monitoring methodology used by the Court Watch Foundation in Poland. Throughout the year, ODIHR also supported criminal justice reform in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia by reviewing and commenting on legislation related to criminal procedure and prosecution. Criminal Justice Reform Administrative Justice ODIHR continued to help participating States share expertise and good practices in improving criminal justice systems. The ODIHR Regional Expert Roundtable on Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings in Central Asia, organized in co-operation with OSCE field operations, took place on 15 and 16 May in Bishkek. Policy-makers and lawmakers, legal practitioners, NGO representatives and academics from the region discussed existing legal aid systems and good practices in establishing efficient ones. ODIHR also organized a follow-up workshop on the recommendations of its 2008 trial-monitoring project in Armenia on 19 March in Yerevan. During the workshop experts discussed evidentiary rules and defence rights in light of the ongoing reform of the Armenian Code of Criminal Procedure. The OSCE applies a comprehensive approach to trial monitoring, covering criminal as well as civil and administrative proceedings. Administrative justice, in particular, is an increasingly important area of ODIHR’s activities. ODIHR finalized and launched the Handbook on Monitoring Administrative Justice, in co-operation with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), on the margins of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. Valuable input was provided by experts from OSCE field operations, 26  /   ODIHR Annual Report 2013

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