9 Foreword The participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have agreed to accept as a confidence-building measure the presence of observers from other OSCE participating States and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at proceedings before their courts.1 As this commitment has been put into practice, OSCE field operations and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) have accumulated significant experience in trial monitoring. This manual brings together the knowledge and good practices collected over many years of OSCE trial-monitoring programmes in more than a dozen countries. Trial monitoring has proven to be a powerful tool for supporting judicial reform and promoting domestic and international guarantees of fair trial rights. Independent monitoring of court proceedings can identify both weaknesses and strengths of justice systems and can generate recommendations for improved practices. The governments of many OSCE participating States have welcomed and implemented such recommendations, leading to improvements in the administration of justice and to greater respect for human rights and the rule of law. This manual is intended primarily for practitioners involved in trial monitoring. It will, however, be of interest to anyone seeking information on trial monitoring and should also be useful to anyone involved in reforming the justice system. This manual focuses on the various practical methodologies used for trial monitoring; while a companion volume, the Legal Digest of International Fair Trial Rights,2 deals with the substantive fair trial rights related issues addressed while monitoring trials. The first edition of this manual was published by ODIHR in 2008. This revised and expanded edition provides a far broader range of methodological approaches, based on OSCE experience. It discusses different types of trial monitoring, distinguishing among systemic, thematic and ad hoc monitoring activities. While the first edition of the manual centred on monitoring criminal trials, this edition also addresses civil and administrative proceedings, as well as many thematic areas covered by trial-monitoring programmes. The manual expands further on many other aspects of trial monitoring, including additional approaches to information gathering, analysis of findings, reporting and advocacy activities. It also addresses, for the first time, methods for measuring the impact of trial-monitoring programmes. It provides detailed guidelines for practitioners on setting up, operating and phasing out trial-monitoring programmes, and on developing partnerships that can ensure the sustainability of programmes once international involvement has ended. 1  Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (1990), paragraph 12, 1990. 2  Legal Digest of International Fair Trial Rights, (Warsaw: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 2012). A list of other sources for substantive standards is included in Annex VII