Democratization Rezarta Schuetz, the Senior Rule of Law Officer at the OSCE Mission to Skopje, listening as Mihail Gotovski, the Project Co-ordinator for the Coalition All for Fair Trials in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, speaks at an ODIHR trial-monitoring meeting, Istanbul, 10 September 2012. (OSCE) procuring expert evidence in criminal proceedings. Criminal Justice Reform ODIHR continued to promote expert discussions in the field of criminal justice and to assist participating States in their reform efforts. The 2012 Expert Forum on Criminal Justice, organized in co-operation with OSCE Field Operations in Central Asia, was held in Almaty from 29 to 31 October. Around 100 experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, including court judges, prosecutors, policymakers, members of parliaments, lawyers, civil society representatives and academics gathered to share lessons learned and good practices in the latest national reforms of the criminal justice sector. They focused on the respective roles of judges, investigators and prosecutors and discussed the processing of torture allegations in criminal proceedings. Conclusions from the Forum will help shape ODIHR’s future support programme to Central Asian participating States. A report summarizing the discussions will be published in early 2013. Administrative Justice The OSCE has adopted a comprehensive approach to trial monitoring, covering criminal, civil and administrative proceedings. Administrative justice is an increasingly important area of ODIHR’s activities. In 2012, ODIHR, in cooperation with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, continued its series of expert consultations to finalize a draft handbook on monitoring administrative justice, building on events organized in 2011. Valuable input was provided by experts from OSCE field operations, the Council of Europe, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and academia. The draft handbook, which combines a compilation of fair-trial standards with practical guidance on monitoring administrative proceedings for compliance with these standards, will be finalized in early 2013. The handbook will serve as a reference tool to support monitoring activities and awareness-raising initiatives on fairtrial standards in administrative proceedings. Supporting the Adjudication of War Crimes In 2012, ODIHR carried on follow-up activities to the EU-funded War Crimes Justice Project, which was completed in October 2011. In particular, ODIHR organized four training seminars on war crimes, ODIHR Annual Report 2012 25