A/HRC/23/43 and effective legal aid to those who cannot afford a lawyer and to other disadvantaged persons. (ii) Partnerships with non-State legal aid service providers 64. Other legal aid schemes are based on a public-private partnership with bar associations, non-governmental or community-based organizations, faith-based groups or the academia, to mention but a few. States may encourage the establishment of centres to provide legal aid services that are staffed by lawyers and paralegals or enter into agreements with law societies and bar associations, university law clinics and nongovernmental or other organizations to provide legal aid services. Under these publicprivate partnerships, States must set quality standards for legal aid services, support the development of standardized training programmes for non-State legal aid service providers and establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure the quality of legal aid services. Some States also have a mixed legal aid system combining different models. 33 65. The Special Rapporteur encourages States to recognize and support the contribution of non-State actors in providing legal aid, and recommends that they adopt all appropriate measures to ensure that non-State legal aid providers are able to carry out their work effectively, freely, autonomously and independently, and without any intimidation, harassment or improper interference. 66. In some cases, legal aid is provided by private lawyers or bar associations, which are later reimbursed by the State for the services provided. In some countries, this scheme is referred to as the “judicare” system. 34 In these schemes, judges or administrative bodies assign a case on an ad hoc basis to a private lawyer, who is paid per hour of work and is often subject to restrictions on the number of cases allocated to him or her. The disadvantages of this approach include favouritism and corruption during the appointment of counsel, and the lack of monitoring and continuity of legal assistance of the services provided. Bar associations may also help to enhance the reach of legal aid services. They can help to create legal assistance telephone hotlines for inquiries and advice, support lawyers‟ pro bono activities and provide information and education tools on legal issues to the general public. 67. In other cases, legal aid is provided by pro bono lawyers, either on a volunteer or compulsory basis. In the first case, bar associations may encourage members of the legal profession to provide pro bono legal aid services. In the second case, a mandatory pro bono requirement may be imposed on lawyers by the bar association, a licencing agency or the Government. Mandatory requirements to provide legal aid often result in low-quality services, since members of the legal profession do not have any financial incentive to act on the cases compulsorily assigned to them. 68. Another problem associated with pro bono legal aid is the lack of appropriate mechanisms to monitor the quality of the services provided. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that international human rights standards require that free legal aid be “effective” and sustainable (see paragraph 40 above). A lawyer, even though appointed by the State, is not an “organ” of the State who can engage its direct responsibility by his or her action, while the State cannot be held responsible for every 33 34 14 For example, in the Netherlands, the legal aid system relies on both a network of publicly funded legal aid centres, which employ salaried staff lawyers who provide legal services to clients, and on private lawyers, who are paid by the State to provide services directly to qualifying low-income clients. See for example the legal aid system in the United States of America, where civil legal aid is generally provided by private attorneys who are reimbursed by the State.