A/HRC/30/30
tracking of the whereabouts of original paper documentation will allow courts to expedite
the processing of cases more efficiently. Granting access to final court decisions to other
parts of the justice system, particularly the police and prisons, should also help to address
blockages in the system that result in excessive or arbitrary detention.
30.
The third tool developed by OHCHR relates to the reform of the pretrial detention
process. A new pretrial detention form was developed by the Ministry of Justice with the
support of OHCHR, and was adopted in January 2014. The form was approved by the
Ministry of Justice in January 2014, forwarded to all courts of first instance and, in March
2014, disseminated to judges, prosecutors and lawyers at a national conference supported
by OHCHR. When filling out the form, judges are, for the first time, asked to set out their
legal reasoning for ordering persons accused of crimes to be held before trial.
31.
Approximately one year after the pretrial detention form was approved, OHCHR
and the Ministry of Justice decided to assess its degree of use and to determine how to
promote it further. They therefore conducted, in the first half of 2015, a survey on the use
of the form in 10 selected provincial courts of first instance. The survey, completed in May,
revealed that its use was not uniform. Approximately 60 per cent of the judges interviewed
responded that they used the new form at least from time to time, while the remaining 40
per cent continued to use the old form. Those that had participated in the conference in
March 2014 were more likely to use the form. Activities to promote the form were
undertaken in cooperation with the Ministry, including follow-up training for judges, which
began in Battambang province in June 2015.
32.
In order to enable lawyers to make use of the possibilities of the pretrial detention
form, in June 2015, OHCHR organized a briefing, attended by 28 practising lawyers,
including 12 women, on the process of requesting the release of accused persons from
pretrial detention. The discussions held at the briefing focused on experiences of and
insights into combating arbitrary detention pending trial. OHCHR also helped a number of
lawyers to strengthen their defence strategies by adopting international human rights
standards. As a result, lawyers now increasingly invoke provisions of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (in particular article 14) and the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in court.
33.
To assist women members of the judicial profession to contribute to improving the
performance of the justice sector, the Ministry of Justice, OHCHR and UN-Women
organized, in November 2014, the first meeting of women judges and prosecutors in
Cambodia. The participants discussed the challenges they faced as women in their
profession and the substantive points of law on which they shared questions. They decided
to establish an informal network for information exchange and mutual support.
34.
With a view to improving access to legal aid by individuals whose rights were at
risk, OHCHR provided grants to specialized bodies that provide such services. Thus, a
grant to the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia, running from December 2014 to
December 2015, was given to provide legal aid in 53 cases officially pending appeal for
lengthy periods. The cases, identified by OHCHR and the prison registry officers in
Correctional Centres 1 and 2, were found not to be actually pending appeal but rather to
have been tried by the Court of Appeal. The cases were, however, treated as such because
the verdict had not been shared with the prisons, which denied the defendants access to
certain important procedures to which they were entitled at that stage in the judicial process,
such as an application for sentence reduction. OHCHR also extended a grant to the nongovernmental organization International Bridges to Justice in Cambodia, to allow it to
provide legal aid in 222 appeal cases identified by OHCHR in which the rights of the
accused appeared not to have been fully respected. As a result of the ongoing partnership
among OHCHR, the Court of Appeal and legal aid organizations, the backlog of appeal
cases that were pending for more than 10 years was completely cleared in 2014, while the
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