A/HRC/24/32 practices, as evidenced by the choice by local civil society of business and human rights as the theme for 2012 Human Rights Day. III. Rule of law 21. The OHCHR Rule of Law Programme in Cambodia is aimed at supporting the legal and judicial reform process in the country, focusing on the strengthening of the rule of law. The Programme works with a range of actors involved in the criminal justice system, mainly the Ministry of Justice, judges and prosecutors at all levels of the court system, lawyers and the judicial police. Cooperation between OHCHR and the Government is strong. In particular, the level of cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, and consequently with judges and prosecutors, markedly increased during the period under review, resulting in an increase in activities co-organized with the Ministry. 22. Cambodia has already ratified a number of international human rights treaties. During the period under review, Cambodia also became a State party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 20 December 2012. OHCHR provided support during the ratification process by, for instance, giving extensive advice on the drafting of the statement of reasons submitted to Parliament for ratification. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth has requested the Office’s assistance in training government officials on the Convention. 23. During the period under review, OHCHR continued to assist relevant stakeholders in implementing the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure in accordance with human rights standards and practice. In November 2012, OHCHR co-organized with the Ministry of Justice a national conference on the implementation of the Criminal Code, which was attended by judges, prosecutors, judicial police officers and lawyers from all provinces. The discussions focused on the provisions of the Code with a potential impact on freedom of expression (such as on incitement and defamation), as well as provisions concerning alternative sentencing. The conference provided an important opportunity to raise the awareness of participants of international human rights standards with regard to freedom of expression. To that end, OHCHR translated the general comment No. 34 of the Human Rights Committee on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the freedoms of opinion and expression3, into Khmer, and published it as a booklet. A member of the Committee was invited to discuss the general comment with participants. 24. In parallel, OHCHR continued to work on the implementation of the Code of Criminal Procedure and to meet regularly with court presidents and chief prosecutors in the provinces to discuss the challenges that they faced in the implementation of the Code and the administration of justice. As a follow-up to the Conference on the implementation of the Code, held in June 2012, OHCHR worked closely with the Ministry of Justice to revise the relevant court forms on pretrial detention in order to ensure that judges issued reasoned decisions when ordering pretrial detention. A consultative meeting with a group of judges was organized in May 2013 to review these forms before final submission to the Minister for Justice. 25. In the light of the five successful judicial round tables held in 2012, the Ministry of Justice agreed to renew the initiative for 2013. This is a joint programme organized in the provinces to discuss with local judges, prosecutors, court clerks and lawyers challenges in the implementation of the Code, with particular reference to the practice of the 3 CCPR/C/GC/34. 7