124 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners organized by judicial actors, NGOs, international organizations and journalists. Monitoring staff have, in various capacities, attended these as participants, presenters or moderators. The media are an excellent means for promoting a programme’s views to the wider public and, possibly, to influence the competent authorities. Therefore, programme managers, with the assistance of a field operation’s press office, often draft press releases or editorial pieces and give interviews on issues related to judicial reforms. Programmes also increasingly use OSCE field operation websites to convey their opinions and present recommendations or reinforce those already included in reports. Because the skills required to write extensive and analytical monitoring reports are different from those required to address the media or general public effectively, monitoring programmes should invest in developing the capacity of their managerial staff to give interviews to the media and to draft press releases in a sharp, focused, prompt and easily understood fashion. Similarly, programmes should advance their staff’s skills at addressing the public in training and conference-type events; effective public speaking to both specialized and non-specialized audiences is a skill that can raise further support for the goals of the organization. 12.4.2 Providing expert advice and participating in working groups for the implementation of reforms Trial-monitoring personnel will have useful expertise to share with the national authorities in their efforts to implement reforms. Monitoring personnel, for instance, are often asked to comment on draft laws prior to their adoption or to participate in working groups that make such comments. They have also participated in working groups aiming at developing strategies on particular pressing themes in justice systems.184 In the same spirit, certain programmes have set up standing working groups comprising representatives of the monitoring programme, the national authorities and, possibly, other international organizations present in the host country. These working groups engage in an institutionalized dialogue on overcoming identified shortcomings.185 12.4.3 Support of training for actors in the justice sector When a root cause of problems appears to be the lack of knowledge or skills to handle a particular issue, targeted training can sometimes provide a solution, by developing practitioners’ capacities. OSCE trial-monitoring programmes have been involved in organizing and delivering training or in supporting such activities by others, in an effort to ensure that their recommendations are implemented effectively. Capacity-building activities have targeted judges, prosecutors, defence counsel, police officers and other personnel. Additionally, ODIHR and OSCE field operations have placed great emphasis on developing the capacity of professionals dealing with critical fields of post-conflict justice through programmes for the transfer of knowledge.186 184  Such has been the case, for instance, for the programme in BiH, which is part of a working group contributing to the formulation of the country’s strategy to address the prosecution of war crimes. 185  One outcome of the Croatian War Crime Working Group (composed of the OSCE Presence in Zagreb, the Croatian authorities, the EU Delegation and the ICTY Field Office) was the adoption of legislative changes allowing the revision of defective in absentia convictions cases from the early 1990s. In Azerbaijan, a working group was formed in 2009, including representatives of the OSCE Office in Baku, the Ministry of Justice, the Judicial Legal Council and senior members of the judiciary. Its purpose is to discuss monitoring findings, to develop recommendations and to facilitate their implementation. 186  Also see Chapter 16.3, “Monitoring war crime proceedings”.