138 Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners In terms of advocacy activities, by way of example, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina initiated the practice of regular meetings of “Local Implementation Groups”, convened by court presidents to discuss challenges faced in the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code. These meetings including OSCE staff, judges, prosecutors, defence counsel and law-enforcement officials, proved to be useful forums in the first few years following the introduction of dramatic changes to the criminal procedure framework. The OSCE Mission also shared trial-monitoring findings with ad hoc bodies within the ministries of justice tasked with monitoring the implementation of the criminal code and criminal procedure and developing necessary amendments. Conclusions from the Local Implementation Group meetings nationwide were compiled and shared with legislative-reform bodies. 16.2 Monitoring investigation and pre-trial proceedings There are many significant issues that thematic programmes can monitor in investigative proceedings, shown on the chart in Annex II.A. Gaining access to the pre-trial phase of proceedings was addressed in Chapter 4.6, hence those considerations are not repeated here. OSCE field operations have engaged in direct pre-trial monitoring either from the beginning of their operations, as did the Mission in Kosovo, or as a result of the expansion of their systemic monitoring programme, as with the Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thematic programmes on pre-trial proceedings need to pay special attention to reassuring local authorities about the programme’s controls over confidential information and the monitors’ non-interference with investigations. It is imperative for managers to address how information gathered from closed proceedings will be handled, given its confidential nature. This might have implications also for other elements of the programme, such as, for instance, whether NGOs will be accepted as monitors by the authorities. To assist monitoring staff in their work, programme guidelines should make specific reference to standards observed in pre-trial proceedings.200 Guidelines or programme instructions should also clarify which hearings or investigative actions may be followed. In addition, programme designers will need to consider how much attention should be paid to the merits of cases. 16.3 Monitoring war crimes proceedings War crimes proceedings are a priority for all OSCE trial-monitoring programmes in host countries that process such cases, as well as for ODIHR, which provides additional assistance in this sector to OSCE field operations. The OSCE trial-monitoring programmes in South-Eastern Europe have developed a variety of thematic structures for focusing on these proceedings. Two of the OSCE trial-monitoring programmes, in Croatia and Serbia, were representative of long-term thematic projects that follow almost exclusively war crimes trials.201 The Mission in Kosovo has always observed war crimes trials through its monitoring of criminal proceedings. The Missions to Skopje and to Montenegro also monitor war crimes proceedings alongside other high-profile cases. The Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has always had within its systemic trial-monitoring programme a team dedicated to following war crimes proceedings.202 200  Monitors should also be well acquainted with the most recent legal developments, such as those from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The latter has found in its case law that an investigation should be effective, independent, prompt and open to an element of public scrutiny. See, for instance, <http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus/international_justice/articles_publications/publications/cambodia-eccc-20110614/cambodia-eccc-20110614-2.pdf>. 201  Other components of these field operations assist local authorities in other justice-related reforms. In Croatia, the programme began to limit its monitoring exclusively to war crimes trials in 2008. 202  This unit also included the “Rule 11bis project”, which was created for the purpose of monitoring six cases indicted by the ICTY that were transferred to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for trial (see the example in Chapter 3.11).