In general, the ICRC should retain the lead in visits to prisoners and detainees, and OSCE missions should be careful not to interfere with its work. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) also has considerable expertise in the field of prison visits and can be consulted for information on its activities. Both the ICRC and the CPT operate on the basis of confidentiality, but they can provide general advice and guidance to the mission. If the ICRC and/or CTP are already involved in prison visits and giving recommendations to a government, the OSCE field mission should be careful to co-ordinate with them and not provide advice to the host government that conflicts with what is being provided by these organizations. Although a visit to a place of detention may be intended to gather information on a single detainee, the OSCE staff member should be alert to any broader conditions or circumstances that could suggest the existence of ill-treatment, inhuman or degrading treatment, or other human rights violations. In many countries, prison systems are woefully underfunded. This may result in inadequate training for prison officials and other conditions that do not comply with international standards. If such conditions are found to exist, it may be possible for the OSCE to assist the government, for example, through the development of an ODIHR programme on prison reform. For more detailed guidelines on visits to detention centres, see Monitoring Places of Detention: A Practical Guide for NGOs.51 7.4 TRIAL MONITORING The purpose of trial monitoring is to assess the fairness of the proceedings and whether they comply with OSCE commitments and other international obligations of the host country (see Section 3.4 for a list of the principal commitments and obligations). Trial monitors should be careful not to interfere in court proceedings. Since court cases are often lengthy, sometimes with proceedings extending over many weeks or months and through several levels of appeals, very few OSCE field operations would have the resources needed to attend all sessions or phases of a trial. It is therefore usually necessary to select certain key or representative sessions to monitor. In some cases, OSCE field missions have engaged local NGOs with special expertise to monitor court proceedings on the mission’s behalf and to report their conclusions to the mission. 51 Association for the Prevention of Torture/ODIHR publication, 2002, available from the ODIHR in book form or on the ODIHR website at http://www.osce.org/odihr. 71 7