A/HRC/27/56 individuals. Implementing a successful prosecutions strategy should not be seen as a concern for the few, but for the entire society.18 41. Among the main advantages of adopting a prosecutorial strategy are the following: (a) Enhancing the performance of criminal institutions through a more deliberate allocation of scarce resources, which in turn enables institutional strengthening, resulting in increased confidence in institutions that demonstrate positive outcomes, leading, in turn, to increased resources;19 (b) Making available a tool to explain to the public and victims, in an accessible and transparent manner, why some cases will have to be processed before others, helping to minimize otherwise frequently defeated expectations; (c) Helping shield prosecutorial decisions from undue influence; (d) Providing a tool for more accurate evaluation of the work of criminal law actors. 42. In contexts of mass violations the adoption of a sound prosecutorial strategy is especially important for the following reasons: (a) A strategy targeting the structures which enabled the violations to occur in the first place is likely to contribute to their dismantlement. This makes trials more than isolated events, increasing the sustainability of the impact of the judicial processes, one of the crucial challenges of all transitional justice measures; (b) A strategy that concentrates on the proper identification of patterns of victimization enhances the possibility of addressing the situation of vulnerable groups; (c) A robust strategy can also serve victim protection through the development of risk assessments, the identification of crucial suspected perpetrators, and minimizing the exposure of victims, and especially witnesses, to repeated procedures; (d) The very process of articulating a strategy involves a planning exercise, including calculating feasibility and giving incentives to establish over time significant links with sectoral reforms, such as security and development policies, thereby maximizing the positive contribution of prosecutions tot strengthening the justice system overall. 43. The adoption and implementation of a prosecutorial strategy, however, face various obstacles. Some of the more structural constraints include: bars on prosecutorial discretion, in some cases stemming from interpretations of the principle of legality;20 the absence of relevant categories of crimes in the existing legal framework, which may prevent prosecutors from targeting certain crimes or conduct (e.g. forced recruitment of child soldiers, different kinds of sexually-based crimes and even enforced disappearance); a high number of individuals in pretrial detention, which generates pressure to deal with those cases first, independently of more strategic considerations. VI. Elements of an effective prioritization strategy 44. Prioritization strategies emerge from the decision to classify and organize cases within a jurisdiction to define the order in which those suspected of gross human rights 18 19 20 A/68/345, paras. 16–21. On processes of institutional transformation in post-conflict and weak States, see World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development, part 2. A/HRC/20/19, para. 34. 9