A/HRC/24/32 Nonetheless, OHCHR continued to work with members of the interministerial committee (which currently acts as the national preventive mechanism) and its secretariat to strengthen their capacity to conduct monitoring visits. For instance, members of the secretariat accompanied OHCHR staff members on their visits to a social affairs centre and a provincial prison in order to familiarize themselves on how such visits were conducted. With a view to eliminating ill-treatment in police stations, OHCHR conducted further training in the provinces, in cooperation with chief prosecutors, for police and gendarmerie officers on the prevention, investigation and prosecution of acts of torture and ill-treatment. A follow-up is currently being conducted through visits to police stations at the district level to assess the impact of the training. 31. The Office’s work with the Court of Appeal to reduce the backlog of pending appeals is described below (see paragraphs 35 to 44). To support this process, OHCHR worked with two legal aid organizations (Legal Aid of Cambodia and International Bridges to Justice) to provide legal assistance in more than 300 priority cases pending before the Court. Through this cooperation, many cases were heard and part of the backlog cleared. The initiative built on the expanded physical capacity of the Court as a result of an earlier OHCHR initiative to build new court rooms. 32. Besides addressing backlogs in the appeal cases, OHCHR and the President of the Court of Appeal also collaborated on improving cooperation between the courts and the prison authorities. A workshop was jointly organized in September 2012, with the participation of all court presidents, chief prosecutors and prison chiefs. Participants focused their discussions on practical ways to improve cooperation in the criminal justice system. Feedback from participants was extremely positive, particularly with regard to the opportunity of meeting colleagues and of discussing common challenges. At the end of the meeting, participants agreed on a set of recommendations that has already been partly implemented. For instance, according to information received, courts share judgements more systematically with prisons in several provinces, thereby reducing the risk of excessive detention. In order to obtain a more detailed picture of the implementation of the right to a fair trial in higher courts, OHCHR is supporting trial monitoring at the Court of Appeal by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. 33. Progress towards the completion of case 002 in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia continued to face challenges. The Court was hampered by serious financial difficulties, which resulted in staff not being paid for several months and going on strike. In September 2012, one defendant, Ieng Thirith, was released from detention after being diagnosed with dementia and declared unfit to stand trial. In March 2013, Ieng Sary, her husband and co-defendant, died. In the meantime, the first “mini-trial” in case 002 focusing on forced population movements is proceeding, and hearings are expected to finish by the end of 2013. At the end of the period under review, the situation regarding cases 003 and 004 was still uncertain. 34. It is in this challenging context that OHCHR continued its work on promoting the legacy of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia. During the period under review, OHCHR endeavoured to refer to practice by the Extraordinary Chambers in all of its activities concerning the rule of law. As mentioned above, OHCHR and the Ministry of Justice co-organized a further six judicial round tables, which proved to be an important platform on which to share good practices from the Extraordinary Chambers with local legal practitioners. OHCHR also continued legacy-specific activities. In particular, it coordinated work on the first draft of a handbook annotating the Code of Criminal Procedure with the jurisprudence of the Extraordinary Chambers. The draft was translated into Khmer; consultations are to be arranged with judges, prosecutors and lawyers before the text is finalized. OHCHR organized a second season of the Fair Trial Rights Academy, an 8-week course for a group of 25 selected law students. During the course, the students 9