E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.3 page 21 B. Recommendations 81. The Working Group invites the Government of Belarus to reconsider the role and place of the actors in a criminal procedure in order to ensure their independence, establish a balance between parties at trial, and ensure an effective protection of the rights of persons deprived of liberty. 82. The State is invited to consider in priority: (a) Taking all appropriate measures to guarantee in law and in practice the effective independence of judges and lawyers, as formulated in the Fundamental Principles Relating to the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and in the Fundamental Principles Relating to the role of Bar Associations, adopted by the General Assembly, in 1985 and 1990 respectively; (b) Reconsidering the legal framework relating to pre-trial detention in order to ensure that placement in detention is ordered by a judge and not by the Prosecutor, and to ensure as well that the proceedings to challenge the legality of detention constitutes an authentic habeas corpus petition and that the court decides in the presence of the person concerned and his/her counsel; (c) Separating the different agencies which may have an interest in an investigation from those in charge of prison supervision and pre-trial detention centres. The Working Group recommends that the prison administration and pre-trial detention centres be placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice, and that the regime of pre-trial detention not be answerable exclusively to investigators. 83. The Working Group recommends that legislation be aligned with international law standards in order to ensure the respect for the presumption of innocence, for the principles of opposition and adversarial procedure and equality of means in all phases of the criminal procedure: (a) The defence lawyer and the accused should have access to all elements of proof and be granted effective means to challenge the accusation at trial; (b) Experts and laboratories should benefit from a status which ensures their impartiality from all parties at trial. 84. The Working Group encourages the Government to take all appropriate measures to improve the conditions of detention of suspects and to reduce overcrowding in pre-trial detention centres and to comply with the conditions detailed in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. In this respect, it is especially important to ensure that: (a) Pre-trial detention is an exceptional measure applied only when alternative measures to detention have proven ineffective;