A/HRC/7/56 page 9 their contents. The Office has started monitoring the implementation of the Code of Penal Procedure and is exploring avenues of cooperation with the relevant institutions to support the training of judges in this regard. 24. The Office maintains working relations with judges and prosecutors and, with full respect for their independence, has continued to discuss with them concerns related to individual cases going through the system. One long-standing concern raised by numerous judges has been the harsh and disproportionate effect on minors of article 8 of the Law on Aggravating Circumstances for Felonies. This law, passed in 2002, removed both the discretion that judges previously had under the criminal provisions of the 1992 Provisions Relating to the Judiciary and Criminal Law and Procedure Applicable in Cambodia during the Transitional Period (commonly known as the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) law) to consider the age of an offender in mitigation and the obligation judges had to halve any prison sentence for persons under 18 years of age. As such, the 2002 law, insofar as it is applied to minors, constitutes a prima facie violation of article 37 (b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which is guaranteed under articles 31 and 48 of the Constitution. As a result, some judges in some provinces have continued to apply the UNTAC law, creating a situation of inconsistent and non-uniform application of the law. The Office participated in a workshop organized by the Ministry of Justice and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the draft juvenile justice law where this issue was discussed. 25. In this regard, the Office and UNICEF provided support and advice to a group of legal aid and child rights NGOs to prepare a submission recommending that the Constitutional Council consider the constitutionality of the 2002 Law in the light of Cambodia’s constitutionally guaranteed obligations under CRC. Cambodian citizens have no direct right of petition to the Constitutional Council, and therefore the submission was addressed to the more than 200 individuals who, ex officio individually or collectively, have the right of petition, including His Majesty the King, who graciously forwarded the petition to the Constitutional Council. 26. The Constitutional Council’s subsequent ruling of 10 July 2007 constitutes a landmark in the protection of human rights in Cambodia. Although the Council decided that the Law on Aggravating Circumstances for Felonies was constitutional, it did so on the basis that the law was not intended to abrogate the protections provided to child offenders in the UNTAC provisions, since this would have violated the Constitution and CRC. Furthermore, the Council clarified in its decision that the international human rights treaties to which Cambodia is party are part of Cambodian domestic law and as such are directly applicable by judges in the courts. The Office publicly welcomed this key decision and has worked to disseminate and explain it, including through a national seminar for judges and prosecutors jointly organized with the Ministry of Justice and UNICEF. The Office is pleased that judges are now applying the Council’s decision in their judgements. The Constitutional Council is a very important, but often marginalized, institution whose role in the protection of constitutional and human rights in Cambodia should be more widely recognized and respected. 27. At the end of the year, the Office met representatives of the Council for Legal and Judicial Reform to explore with them ways in which cooperation could be developed. Several such areas were identified, including the establishment of a database on human rights; education and training; support to the Ministry of Education in the field of human rights education; and assistance to the Planning Management Unit of the Council.