Abogacía Española, the Bars of Cyprus, Italy and Poland, and the Bars of Athens, Budapest and Paris,135 as well as the training programmes conducted by the Academy of European Law Academy (ERA) in 2013,136 and more recently in 2020 - 2021.137 The recently adopted Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information Gathering (Méndez Principles),138 already mentioned above, will have a major impact on strengthening the capacities for professional policing and procedural rights. As noted by Dr. Ivar Fahsing, Detective Chief Superintendent and Associate Professor at the Norwegian Police University College, interviewing of suspects requires specific training if it is to be performed in a professional manner. Detectives must understand the true role of an investigative officer and learn to think differently. The aim of interviewing is not to confirm what the officer thinks may have happened or to coerce the interviewee into providing information or confessing but rather to actively seek and test for all potential explanations related to suspects innocence. This might reduce cognitive biases and helps officers meet the legal threshold of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ as well as reduce wrongful confessions and miscarriages of justice. Officers who approach interviews with an open mind are far more productive; they effectively apply the presumption of innocence in practice by generating and actively testing alternative hypotheses through systematic planning, rapport building and evidence collection from human sources. Furthermore, investigative interviewing favours empathy and analytical and communicative skills. Altogether, this may contribute to a culture change within the police and increase officers’ well-being and job motivation.139 Challenges and how to overcome them A key challenge in the area of training mentioned by the participants in this project is the potential lack of interest and resources to invest in such training from the part of criminal justice stakeholders. Specifically, when training is offered by CSOs there can be reluctance from the authorities and trainers may be dismissed as ‘not knowing the challenges on the ground’. Thus, it is important to embed training activities in a larger strategy (e.g. a Theory of Change) and explicitly reflect on how the respective stakeholders can be motivated to strengthen their capacities. Further, with regard to the police, it can be helpful to frame it as a need to strengthen ‘professional capacities’ rather than ‘human rights training’. Importantly, the participants have to understand why they benefit from such training. An approach appreciating the existing resources and involving experts with a first-hand knowledge of the practical challenges of the target group is helpful. Moreover, it is useful for CSOs to conduct training together with criminal justice actors (e.g. police or judges and prosecutors). This allows state trainers to gain an external perspective, and civil society trainers to gain an internal perspective and allows participants to gain a fuller picture of the problems and solutions addressed. The cooperation also sets a good example for the benefits of a strong cooperation between the state and civil society and builds relationships for future cooperation. Single interventions are unlikely to create sustainable change. One-off training, for example, tends 135. Abogacía Española Consejo General, ‘Crimilaw: Training of lawyers in European instruments on criminal procedural law (2020-2022)’ (2023). 136. The project was implemented together with the Italian School for the Judiciary and the Romanian National School of Clerks and its results are available here: ERA, ‘Handbook Project JUST/2013/JPEN/AG/4496 Procedural Rights in EU Criminal Law’ <https://www.era.int/upload/dokumente/18183.pdf>. 137. The project was implemented together with the Centre for Judicial Studies, The Croatian Judicial Academy, The Estonian Prosecution Office, The European Judicial Training Network, The European Legal Interpreters and Translator. The results are available here ERA, ‘Applying Procedural Rights in the EU – State of Play’ Academy of European Law’ <https://procedural-rights. legal-training.eu/events/>. 138. Méndez Principles (2021); see also the E-Learning modules offered by the UNODC on Investigative Interviewing: University of Oslo, ‘UNODC Global eLearning Course on Investigative Interviewing now Available’ (2022) <https://www.jus.uio.no/smr/ english/about/id/news/2022/unodc-global-elearning-course-on-investigative-int.html> accessed 02 March 2023. 139. Boyle and Vullierme, ‘A Brief Introduction to Investigative Interviewing’ (2018); CPT, ‘28th General Report of the CPT’ (2018). 43