E/CN.4/2002/77/Add.2 page 19 62. Registration on the Bar roll is subject to payment of an annual fee; if the fee is not paid, the lawyer is struck off the roll by order of the Minister of Justice. Disciplinary proceedings are brought by the Minister before a commission comprising three judges and two lawyers appointed by the Minister. Lawyers’ fees are paid by the client. Disputed cases are settled in the High Court. 63. Provision is made for legal aid, which is granted by a commission composed of lawyers. In cases where the law compels representation by counsel (criminal and juvenile cases), legal aid is granted by order of the Minister of Justice and the officially assigned counsel’s fees are set by the court and defrayed by the Treasury. 64. Article 19 of the Legislative Decree states that, in carrying out their professional duties, lawyers are authorized to represent their clients before the courts. Under article 24, the police services and all bodies with quasi-judicial powers are obliged to facilitate counsel’s work, permit counsel to represent clients during the preparation of the case and to give counsel access to the case file, on condition that the proceedings are not obstructed. 65. In practice, according to information from a number of past and present detainees and certain lawyers, legal representation is not permitted during police custody, despite there being no law against it. Generally speaking, it is only when a person is brought before a judge that the family hires a lawyer. For indigent persons, defence counsel is officially assigned only in criminal cases and only when a case comes to court: “Every person accused before any Criminal Court may of right be defended by a wakil” (Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 124). As all the preparatory proceedings are handled by the police, they take place - even in criminal cases - with no lawyer present and counsel is officially assigned to represent the accused only on the day of the trial. According to consistent reports from present and former detainees, the officially assigned counsel will often conduct a single interview with his client before defending him the same day. 66. This practice, which all too often reduces the right of defence to a mere formality, is incompatible with article 20 of the Constitution and relevant international standards. The right to a fair trial cannot be effective unless the right to legal representation is guaranteed throughout all stages of the procedure, particularly for persons deprived of their liberty, regardless of whether they have committed offences under ordinary law. Discussions that members of the Working Group have had with lawyers suggest that the fate of ordinary-law detainees and foreigners in administrative custody is not one of their priorities; they are more concerned with those formerly held in connection with security offences and the implementation of political reforms. Among the programmes of technical cooperation between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Bahrain, therefore, it would be advisable to make provision for one to make lawyers more aware of the importance of their role in shaping a State governed by the rule of law, where the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial of all accused persons, however serious the charges against them, are respected. 67. The status of lawyers is now being discussed with a view to organizing the profession into a professional body, and a new Code of Criminal Procedure is in the process of being promulgated. It is important to ensure that the new Code embodies the relevant universal