A/HRC/4/98* page 14 by weak State institutions, low salaries for judges and prosecutors, widespread corruption, the presence of armed individuals and the failure to ensure a secure environment for courts, judicial personnel, victims and witnesses. Moreover, the justice system still lacks sufficiently qualified officials, adequate legal education, and the necessary administrative tools and physical infrastructure to administer justice fairly and effectively. The findings of the Supreme Court’s report on judicial education issued in May 2006 highlighted the fact that only about a third of the 1,415 judges currently working in Afghanistan has a tertiary education. 58. There are prisons in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, administered by the Ministry of Justice. Prison conditions in most facilities remain below minimum international standards, treatment of detainees and prisoners raise serious human rights concerns and judicial guarantees are largely absent. In late 2006, the Central Prison Department announced that it did not have accommodation for nearly 1,000 male prisoners in 11 provincial prisons and that prisoners had been sleeping in the prison yards. There has been some progress, as a number of major prison projects are currently being carried out including two new prison facilities in Gardez and Mazar-I-Sharif, a women and juvenile’s wing in Kabul and a juvenile correctional centre in Herat. 59. Positive reforms are being implemented in the justice sector and in August 2006, a new Chief Justice was sworn in together with seven new Supreme Court judges. The new composition of the Supreme Court reflects a fairly even ethnic balance and is more reform minded and professional than the previous Court. Nevertheless, there are no women judges and the United Nations continues to encourage the Government to appoint a qualified woman to the single vacancy on the Supreme Court. In the latter part of 2006, Chief Justice Azimi dismissed several judges throughout the country on the grounds of lack of qualifications or alleged corruption. While such attempts to professionalize the judiciary are welcome, the dismissals raise concerns regarding due process and transparency. In October 2006, Chief Justice Azimi presented the Supreme Court’s five-year reform strategy to achieve the rule of law benchmark of the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghanistan National Development Strategy. The strategy includes a plan to systematically review judicial remuneration, appointment, promotion and discipline. 60. The new Attorney-General, Abdul Sabit, was appointed in August 2006 and has undertaken a campaign to tackle corruption. He has removed several prosecutors and a number of provincial and district officials have been arrested and placed under investigation. He also appointed the first women chief prosecutor in the Province of Herat. However, there remains a pressing need to undertake more far-reaching institutional reforms of the Attorney-General’s Office to ensure increased efficiency and effectiveness and to address corruption. 61. In the summer of 2006 the Juvenile Code was submitted to Parliament for its endorsement. The Wolesi Jirga (Lower House) rejected the age of 18 years as the age for criminal prosecution for both girls and boys and lowered the age for girls to 17. Persistent lobbying efforts by civil society and some parliamentarians - with technical expertise provided by UNIFEM and UNAMA - have been undertaken to challenge this differentiation in age. (The Meshrano Jirga (Upper House) had approved the legal age of 18 for both boys and girls.) A joint commission of representatives of the two houses will be convened to resolve this conflict.