A/HRC/40/65 Constitution, and then on activities aimed at enhancing the constitutional implementation process, and also by supporting the Kenyan judiciary to strengthen its capacity to administer and enhance access to justice. She described the International Development Law Organization’s work in Kyrgyzstan on projects to bring people closer to the judiciary, the development of institutional safeguards, and constitutional protection of judicial independence. Ms. Khan also referred to recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in his report relating to the establishment, composition and functions of judicial councils (A/HRC/38/38) and noted that transparency was key. She argued that when parliament supported judicial independence, democracy was strengthened. 45. Ms. McGrath described the Australian Human Rights Commission’s work, its relationship with the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, and the “bridging role” that it played between stakeholders. She referred to efforts to improve parliamentary engagement with human rights and the Committee’s work in examining legislation for compatibility with human rights. In addition to scrutiny at the federal level, Ms. McGrath said that some states and territories were embedding human rights scrutiny mechanisms. She drew attention to the Belgrade Principles on the relationship between national human rights institutions and parliaments, of 2012, and the Abuja Guidelines, of 2004, which focused on the relationship between Commonwealth national human rights institutions and parliaments. She outlined how national human rights institutions could increase parliamentarians’ human rights knowledge, including through involvement in parliamentary scrutiny processes, engagement with parliamentarians, and human rights training. She described the Commission’s written submissions to parliamentary committees on human rights matters and said it was often asked to provide oral evidence to parliamentary committees. She concluded by recommending, in relation to parliamentary scrutiny processes, that the committee charged with conducting human rights scrutiny have the necessary resources, knowledge, time and capacity to scrutinize legislation effectively, and that policymakers and public servants have enough human rights expertise. Regarding the role of national human rights institutions, Ms. McGrath recommended that parliaments see them as a key resource, consulting them on the human rights compatibility of proposed laws and using them to help parliamentarians develop skills. Parliamentarians and national human rights institutions should look for ways to collaborate to ensure that the recommendations of the human rights treaty bodies and the universal periodic review received parliamentary consideration. As a national human rights institution’s mandate would be set out in a constitutional or legislative text, parliamentarians should ensure that the institution’s founding law guaranteed its independence and granted sufficient resources. 46. Mr. Kalezic described the work of the MANS project titled “Improving parliamentary oversight and accountability in Montenegro”, funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund. The project aimed to help strengthen the Parliament of Montenegro by entrenching good governance and facilitating greater contact between parliamentarians and people. He referred to the fact that multiparty democracy in Montenegro was only 30 years old, and remarked that the parliamentary procedural laws were inadequate and members of the public were not close to parliamentarians. MANS had compiled an index of parliamentarians��� actions during parliamentary plenary sessions. This had been publicized by the media. The result was that some opposition parliamentarians had started to speak up more; the index had made them feel empowered to speak up as the positions adopted by all parliamentarians in Parliament were being monitored. Mr. Kalezic referred to the key work of parliament as being to scrutinize legislation. He said that parliamentarians had not always been effective in serving as a check against the power of the executive and parliamentary recommendations were not always implemented by ministries. MANS had compiled a database of parliamentary recommendations and shown that of 100 recommendations issued during the review period, only 20 had been implemented. Mr. Kalezic described how MANS had pushed for the recommendations to be implemented and a procedure for follow-up had been adopted. He said that more remained to be done to strengthen the relationship between Parliament and the people. He referred to the absence of a parliamentary procedure for citizens to submit comments and described how a final draft of such a procedure had recently been adopted by Parliament. He pointed out that civil society organizations that criticized parliamentarians were often branded as enemies of the 12