Democratization Tatyana Zinovich Anvar Kaliev, a lawyer from Almaty, addresses the jury during a mock trial at a workshop for defence lawyers in Almaty in March. In August, ODIHR held its annual Summer School on Criminal Justice for Central Asia in Almaty. All Central Asian states were represented by legal practitioners, officials, and academics. The OSCE Centres in Astana, Dushanbe, and Ashgabat and the Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan funded participants from their respective countries. Experts from Russia, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan led the discussion on a variety of issues that are topical in Central Asia, including judicial authorization of arrest and jury trials. The debates deepened the participants’ understanding of reform challenges and helped them to articulate their own ideas for positive change in criminaljustice systems. Strengthening legal professionals Institutional strength is rooted in the quality of personnel. The rule of law in any country relies on well-trained and professional lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and civil servants to uphold its tenets. Mindful of this fact, ODIHR supports and promotes legal education and training programmes that strengthen the capacity of legal professionals, focusing its limited resources on the areas where its assistance is requested or deemed practical. The first jury trials held in Kazakhstan since being introduced in January 2007 showed that defence lawyers were not adequately prepared 24 Annual Report 2007 to defend their cases in front of juries. ODIHR, together with the Union of Advocates of Kazakhstan, selected 26 criminal lawyers from different regions to participate in a four-day training course to improve their skills. At the training, held in March, experts from the Russian Federation addressed the main skills that lawyers need to effectively defend their clients in jury trials. Special emphasis was placed on examining witnesses and oral advocacy. The training included a mock trial with a real jury panel selected from the residents of Almaty. After the mock trial, participants analysed their successes and failures together with the trainers. Armenia is facing an increasing number of requests for legal assistance from abroad, and its own prosecutors are often not sufficiently familiar with the procedure for requesting legal assistance from foreign countries. In response to a request from Armenia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office, ODIHR, in co-operation with the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the UNODC, and the Council of Europe, conducted a series of workshops in November on international co-operation in criminal matters. The training covered all practical aspects of legal assistance in criminal matters, including extradition, transfers of convicted persons, and transfers of criminal proceedings.