A/HRC/17/41 ensures that international and national human rights actors coordinate their activities and shares information on the human rights situation. Human rights sub-cluster members include human rights NGOs as well as relevant United Nations partners. OHCHR also promoted the mainstreaming of human rights into the work of the United Nations Country Team by participating in the various cluster-related activities, including contingency planning and inter-cluster coordination meetings. C. Human rights issues 1. Civil and political rights (a) Administration of justice 35. During the second and third quarters of 2010, a European Union-UNDP project provided the interim Ministry of Justice with technical assistance for the preparation of 15 draft laws to be submitted either through the Government or members of the Parliament. This set of legislative acts, if adopted, would regulate various matters relating to the judicial system, including a draft set of amendments to the Law on the Status of Judges, the Law on the Supreme Court and Local Courts, a draft law on the council for the selection of judges and on the Constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court. Following the approval of these amendments, it is envisaged that the new system for the appointment of judges will increase public confidence in the judiciary, following the dismissal, through Decrees of the interim Government, of dozens of judges who were appointed under former president Bakiyev. 36. Further to the June 2010 violence, the authorities took steps to investigate and bring to justice those suspected of involvement in the events. The Office of the Prosecutor in Osh and Jalal-Abad reportedly initiated investigations into more than 5,000 cases. In cases which have come to trial, most defendants have been ethnic Uzbek. Scores of individuals wanted for involvement in the June 2010 violence reportedly remain at large. 37. Trials of defendants accused of involvement in the June 2010 violence have failed to uphold basic standards for fair trial, in courts both of first and second instance. Alleged violations of fair trial standards include torture and ill-treatment; inadequate access to lawyers and family members; inadequate access to medical care; failure of the authorities to prevent physical attacks, intimidation and harassment in and around the court; failure to uphold equality of arms and impartiality, and failure to declare as inadmissible confessions extracted under duress. Guilty verdicts in some cases appeared to rely heavily on confessions allegedly extracted under torture. 38. Defence lawyers representing ethnic Uzbek defendants charged in connection with the June 2010 violence face particular risks in carrying out their work. In some cases, attacks against such lawyers reportedly occurred in front of law enforcement officers, who failed to intervene. Lawyers were also threatened and harassed inside the courtroom. Following national and international advocacy to protect lawyers, the authorities took a number of measures, such as providing security for court trials and for participants in the proceedings, including changes of trial locations. Despite this, verbal insults and harassment inside the courtroom continued, as did occasional attempts by civilians to attack defendants and lawyers. None of the individuals alleged to have attacked lawyers have faced legal action. 39. In February 2011, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Public Associations initiated draft amendments to the Law on the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic in follow-up to previous meetings of the Committee. The proposed amendments fall short of the international principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles) 8