[ Democratization ] Colleen Rohan, Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (l), and Romana Schweiger, War Crimes Justice Project (WCJP) Regional Co-ordinator, lead an advocacyskills training session for defence lawyers appearing in war crimes cases as part of the WCJP, Prishtinë/ Priština, 19 October 2011. (OSCE/Driton Paqarada) more reforms are needed to achieve full compliance with international standards. In follow-up, the OSCE Centre in Astana and Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court organized regional seminars for local judges to promote human rights protection at the pre-trial stage of criminal proceedings. Administrative Justice An effective system of administrative justice is fundamental to the rule of law, as governments and public administrations must act within the scope of their legal authority to ensure accountability. OSCE commitments attach special importance to the right of individuals to seek legal redress whenever their rights and liberties are curtailed. Recognizing the importance of this area, ODIHR, in co-operation with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, convened an expert meeting in Stockholm, on 12 and 13 May, to finalize the concept for a handbook on monitoring administrative justice proceedings before courts. Valuable input was provided at the meeting by experts from OSCE field operations, the Council of Europe, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from academia. The draft handbook, which combines a compilation of fair-trial standards with practical guidance on monitoring these standards in courts, underwent further expert peer review on 10 and 11 November in Vilnius, where 30 participants from the judiciary, academia, the legal profession, international organizations and OSCE field operations provided their comments and contributions. The handbook will be finalized in 2012 to support monitoring exercises and awareness-raising initiatives on fair-trial standards in administrative proceedings. Supporting the Adjudication of War Crimes October 2011 saw the conclusion of the 4 million euro War Crimes Justice Project (WCJP), which was funded by the European Union and implemented by ODIHR in partnership with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), with support from OSCE field operations in South-Eastern Europe. The project consolidated the capacity of national jurisdictions in the region to deal with practical issues related to war crimes cases, enhancing the capacity of the institutions that prosecute and adjudicate war crimes cases, facilitating the exchange of experience between justice actors from the region and the ICTY, and transferring relevant material from the ICTY to the region. ODIHR Annual Report 2011 25