A/HRC/15/46 laws into practice, in order to foster a culture of pluralism and tolerance and move towards more inclusive, participatory and transparent decision-making processes on issues which have a direct impact on people’s human rights. It is in these areas that meaningful and constructive dialogue and cooperation would be needed among the Government, the civil society, and the international community. State-society dialogue is important in any country, at all stages of development, and in particular in a country such as Cambodia which is recovering from the war and is still in a phase of transition. The Government has made good progress in promoting and protecting human rights in the country, but still has a long way to go to meet the international benchmark in this regard. 65. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to note that that the Government seems to have the desire and the political will to reform the legal and judicial sector. It has been a pleasure and a privilege for the Special Rapporteur to work with the Prime Minister and other senior members of the State and civil society and he looks forward to working with them to bring about tangible reform to the judicial system. Therefore, the Special Rapporteur is encouraging the Government to push ahead with its legal and judicial reform agenda by building on the accomplishments already made in promoting and protecting human rights in the country. VIII. Recommendations Steps to enhance the independence of the judiciary 66. Cambodia should adopt and enact the Law on the Status of Judges and Prosecutors and the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the Courts without any delay. These laws should be designed to ensure the independence both of institutions and of individuals in the judiciary as well as to take disciplinary action against judicial malpractices, and corrupt and incompetent judges. The Constitution requires the enactment of these laws which have not been in place for nearly 17 years. These laws will contribute to safeguarding the tenure of judges and protecting the terms and conditions of their service, based on a code of conduct for judges and prosecutors. 67. The new laws should ban active party political members from holding judicial positions and ban judges and prosecutors from acting as advisers to party political leaders or ministers. The judges and prosecutors may be members of a political party prior to their appointment. However, when they are appointed to judicial positions they should cease to be an active member of any political party or play any role in party political activities. 68. Judges and prosecutors should be adequately remunerated, required to work full time and be banned from holding jobs outside the judiciary. Judges and prosecutors should receive their salary and other allowances from a single source, i.e. the Ministry of Justice. At present, judges are paid their basic salary from the Ministry of Justice and a separate performance allowance from the Council of Ministers. This practice is not conducive to judicial independence from the executive. 69. The Supreme Court, and not the Ministry of Justice, should have overall responsibility for supervising the lower courts. 70. Prosecutors should not come under the control of the Ministry of Justice, but under that of the SCM. 16