A/HRC/20/12 Draft Housing Code 27. On 6 June 2011, ROCA supported working consultations with parliamentarians to familiarize primary decision-makers with international standards and best practices on the right to adequate housing. These were followed by parliamentary hearings on the draft Housing Code, during which comments and recommendations from Mr. Miloon Kothari, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, were taken into consideration. The draft specifies concrete public needs which can be used as justification for the demolition of housing and obliges the State to provide proper compensation or equivalent housing. The draft also outlines the creation of a specialized housing stock as an option to implement the right to adequate housing for vulnerable groups of the population such as the homeless, orphans, persons with disabilities, and elderly persons. The draft Housing Code is currently with the Parliamentary Committee on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which is to review it in the spring of 2012. B. Selection of judges 28. The Constitution identifies the Council for the Selection of Judges (CSJ) as the main body tasked with the selection of judges. 29. On 14 June 2011, the then President Rosa Otunbaeva signed the Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, according to which judges of the Constitutional Chamber were to be elected by Parliament. Nominees were proposed by Otunbaeva on the basis of the selection carried out by CSJ. 30. On 27 July 2011, CSJ began the selection process, which faced both internal and external criticism. Several CSJ members, civil society and Supreme Court judges publicly expressed their disapproval over the grading of candidates by CSJ, stating that it was not made public. Under pressure from civil society, the then President asked CSJ to release the grading results showing how each candidate had been graded. Upon their publication, civil society raised a number of concerns, including that the candidates who had received the highest grades were not the ones recommended by CSJ to the then President. 31. On 13 and 14 August 2011, the then President Otunbaeva interviewed the candidates proposed by CSJ for the Constitutional Chamber positions. Against a backdrop of public protests staged against CSJ, Parliament ultimately approved two of the three candidates recommended by Rosa Otunbaeva out of the 11 proposed by CSJ. These moves, both from Parliament and the then President, were criticized by some civil society representatives as an excess of authority of the legislative and executive powers over the judiciary. 32. President Otunbaeva established a Commission tasked with preparing amendments to the laws on the judiciary, which were approved in October 2011. On 15 November 2011, she vetoed the draft amendments, stating that complete reappointment of CSJ was necessary. This put on hold the appointment process of judges. In November 2011, Parliament overturned three Decrees of the President issued in 2010 regarding the dismissal of 10 Supreme Court judges from their functions, thereby restoring eight of them. In its Resolution, Parliament stated that the President’s Decrees had been adopted in violation of the Constitution and existing Laws regulating the judiciary that grant only to Parliament the right to dismiss Supreme Court judges from their functions following a conclusion of the National Justice Council (which was replaced under the Constitution by the Council of Judges). The President’s Decrees had been previously criticized by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as illegitimate and violating the principles of the independence of the judiciary. 33. In February 2012, the pending amendments to the laws on the judiciary were again vetoed by President Atambaev, who stated that the CSJ should not be dismissed and that 7