A/HRC/12/43 page 9 Minister of Justice in February 2008, the Union of Magistrates of Burundi (SYMABU) highlighted concerns about the composition of the Council, the promotion of judges with inadequate professional experience to the Supreme Court, and the management of court budgets by the Ministry of Justice. 29. Accessing justice is impeded by the lack of a legal aid system, whose establishment is encouraged by the Human Rights Committee in its general comment No. 32 (1997) on the right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial. Defendants are rarely provided with lawyers, even in criminal cases.2 30. The malfunctioning of the judiciary in turn impacts on already deplorable prison conditions. Illegal and prolonged preventive detention is common, which has resulted in overcrowding of prisons by roughly four times their capacity. This has worsened prison conditions that were already in violation of international standards, including in respect of separation of children from adults and minimum space, food and medical requirements. Obligations to conduct prompt judicial review of the legality of each detention, provided for under article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are routinely breached as a result of apparent arbitrariness in rulings frequently non-compliant with established procedures, and a general failure to enforce court rulings. 31. The Government has taken a variety of measures, notably in redressing ethnic and gender imbalances as well as revising the salary scales of judges. The Ministry has established a coordination team to ensure coherence among all interventions, including those of civil society, bilateral donors and United Nations agencies. Assistance lent by the United Nations in this sector includes the renovation of prisons and construction of courthouses; extensive training for magistrates on judicial ethics and assistance in revising the Code on the Magistracy. A United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) project focused on building the capacities of magistrates to enforce unexecuted judgements, was successfully concluded in March 2009. However, many challenges remain. The judiciary is overwhelmed with pending cases and magistrates presently enforce their own decisions, which is costly, unsustainable, and legally problematic. 32. A number of emblematic cases serve as a test of the will of the Government to combat impunity in respect of serious crimes. Among them is the trial for the murder of four presumed members of Palipehutu-FNL in the Kinama Commune of Bujumbura in August 2006. The case was presented in court on 3 April 2009 but no verdict has been issued, despite the lapse of the two-month time limit prescribed in law.3 Another pertains to the massacre of Congolese refugees in Gatumba in 2004, for which, to date no judicial action has taken place. No convictions have yet been rendered for the assassinations of the representatives of the World Health Organization in 2001 or of those of UNICEF (the United Nation Children’s Fund) in 1999. 2 Law No. 01/014 portant réforme du statut de la profession d’avocat, article 55. 3 Criminal Procedure Code, article 130.