the quality of legal services that people receive. During Future priorities the year, the ODIHR conducted a series of train-thetrainer workshops with the Almaty City Collegium of The ODIHR will continue to provide support to its gov- Advocates to develop domestic capacity for legal-skills ernmental and non-governmental partners in the two training using interactive methods. broad programmatic areas described in this section. In 2004, the ODIHR also continued to provide support to legal clinics in Central Asia. Legal clinics give law stu- Through its Criminal-Justice Reform Programme, the dents an opportunity to gain practical experience ei- ODIHR plans to assist in the ongoing reform of crimi- ther by handling legal cases under the supervision of a nal-justice systems by working with lawyers, judges, lawyer or through conducting “streetlaw” or legal-lit- prosecutors, and prison professionals. It will continue eracy programmes. In "live-client" legal clinics, such as to promote increasing implementation of alternative the Legal Clinic at the University of Osh in southern sentencing, thereby aiming to reduce prison popula- Kyrgyzstan, law students, under the supervision of ex- tions in all countries. In addition, the Criminal-Justice perienced lawyers, represent clients and work to help Reform Programme will promote structural reform of them resolve their particular problems. This has two penal systems. The Office will continue to integrate important consequences: First, law students gain first- anti-torture work into all its projects, with a particular hand practical experience; second, free legal services focus on torture prevention at the stage of pre-trial de- are provided to people who would otherwise remain tention. without legal assistance. Through its Fair-Trials Programme, the ODIHR plans to In streetlaw clinics that the ODIHR supports in Kaza- continue training and other activities that will be khstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, students learn to specifically developed considering the particular cir- give interactive lessons on basic legal rights to people cumstances and needs in each country. In some coun- in their communities. Various groups are targeted in tries, such work will focus on defence lawyers. Where these programmes, including prisoners, school stu- appropriate, the programme will focus on assistance to dents, and women. The streetlaw lessons are interac- the judiciary and to prosecutors. In all instances, the tive and problem-oriented, so that people may find an- approach taken will be specific to the country and will swers to the legal problems relevant to their lives. In aim to improve access to fair trials. Fair trials have a po- the summer of 2004, the ODIHR sponsored and organ- tential multiplier effect far outside the legal communi- ized a Summer School for streetlaw clinics in Central ty, as citizens gain greater confidence in their legal sys- Asia, including for clinics not directly sponsored by the tem and, by extension, their laws. ODIHR. More than 20 participants from clinics in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan partici- At the political level, the ODIHR will continue to sup- pated in a 10-day intensive training-of-trainers course port legal and structural reforms that increase access to in interactive training techniques, which was led by ex- professional legal assistance. Information gathered perts from Belarus. through trial-monitoring programmes conducted by the ODIHR’s Human Rights Department is expected to help shape the development of future assistance projects under the Fair-Trials Programme. 26