courts such as ratios of judges and court staff to their caseloads, benchmark numbers and sizes of courtrooms, norms for workspaces for judges and support personnel, standard equipment and supplies. Compile information on the degree to which these standards are met in practice.  Elaborate a comprehensive plan addressing practical obstacles to the implementation of international obligations and recent legislative solutions designed to ensure fairness of court proceedings. The plan should include measures for dealing with infrastructural problems and enhancing the organisational capacity, effectiveness and productivity of the courts. The plan should specify direct actions to improve professional knowledge and ethics.  Continue efforts to develop professional management in courts at all levels to increase administrative capacity. Require that persons seeking appointments for court managerial functions possess the relevant education and skills.  Prioritise continual training for court presidents, judges and staff in modern techniques of management; organisation and maximisation of space, court clientele, personnel, time and case flow management; trial recording; and use of current technology to increase the ability of courts to deal with the increasing number of cases in an orderly and timely manner.  Use regulatory powers and available mechanisms for oversight of professional ethics to address – in cooperation with the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Bar Association – delays and postponements leading to case backlogs and lengthy adjudication.  Initiate introduction of a legal procedure to challenge court delays by providing to the parties the right to lodge judicial complaints against lengthy proceedings in pending cases.  Develop effective mechanisms to eliminate the practice of holding hearings in judges’ offices when courtrooms are available.  Through appropriate regulations prohibit the practice of scheduling numerous cases at the same time at the appellate level, hearing many cases and then deliberating on them in-bulk.  Through appropriate regulations, eliminate the practice of replacing defence counsel shortly before hearings.  Encourage the use of existing alternative means of criminal case resolution as a means of reducing case backlogs and the length of court proceedings, e.g., mediation and plea-bargaining (with appropriate amendments to the latter regarding the defendant’s certainty about the punishment, if s/he enters the plea.)  Enhance the status and professionalism of court clerks and court interpreters. Ensure that their qualification requirements include knowledge of fair trial standards, awareness of their own procedural significance and familiarity with requirements of professional ethics. Also provide for their continuing professional training.  Endorse automation of certain court functions, including case information and trial recording practices, to enhance work effectiveness and accuracy. Encourage audio recording during hearings to ensure greater accuracy of trial records. 83