Human Rights recommendations to participating States, drawn from best practices from across the OSCE area, on how they can best secure the enjoyment of human rights by members of the armed forces. ODIHR also co-operated with the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts for the Development of Human Rights’ Group on Human Rights in the Armed Forces, utilizing the expertise it had built up in past roundtables and in drafting the handbook to contribute to a Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation on Human Rights in the Armed Forces. IV. Monitoring compliance with human dimension commitments ODIHR’s monitoring of implementation of OSCE commitments by participating States helps identify areas where it may render technical assistance or help states improve compliance by providing capacity-building expert advice, or by facilitating dialogue between civil society and national authorities. Specific areas include fairtrial and capital-punishment safeguards. Trial-monitoring OSCE participating States have made a commitment to accept court observers as a confidencebuilding measure and to ensure transparency in the implementation of their commitments to fair judicial proceedings. The purpose of trialmonitoring is to assess criminal-court proceedings in terms of their compliance with OSCE commitments, international fair-trial standards, and national criminal-procedure laws. Trialmonitoring is concerned only with the fairness of a trial, not with the guilt or innocence of the accused. The information gathered by monitors attending court hearings can form the basis for recommendations for the reform of legal systems, as well as for the development of institution-building projects by ODIHR or other international and national organizations. Kazakhstan A two-year trial-monitoring project in Kazakhstan, conducted jointly by ODIHR and the OSCE Centre in Astana, came to an end in 2007 following the observation of some 730 court sessions in eight regions of the country. The project’s final report was released at the Supreme Court in February, where representatives of Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Council, the Office of the Prosecutor-General, the Ministry of Justice, and civil society met to discuss the report’s findings with respect to the compliance of Kazakhstan’s criminal courts with international and national fairtrial standards, as well as recommendations for reform. These included upholding the right of the public to attend court, ensuring equality of arms, and upholding the presumption of innocence. The OSCE Centre in Astana followed up on the project by engaging Kazakhstan’s government in dialogue on the recommendations and carrying out a second round of trial-monitoring that lasted until the end of 2007. As part of the follow-up process, ODIHR participated in a series of consultations on the report that were held in May at the Almaty City Court and several other regional centres in Kazakhstan. These meetings provided a forum for discussions on the practical implementation of the report’s recommendations, e.g., the removal of metal cages from courtrooms throughout Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan ODIHR and the OSCE Centre in Bishkek completed a two-year trial-monitoring project in Kyrgyzstan in 2007. During the monitoring period, 26 monitors observed 1,134 court sessions. The final report on the project, which was released in Bishkek at the end of November, includes findings about compliance with international and national fair-trial standards and also identifies possible areas for reform. The launch of the report involved a discussion with members of the judiciary, prosecutors, and defence lawyers, and was followed by a public roundtable that brought together legal professionals and representatives of civil society. Annual Report 2007 A report on a trialmonitoring project in Kyrgyzstan. 45