A/HRC/20/20 15. The outcome of the regional consultations would enable the Special Rapporteur to commence drafting guidelines on effective and continuous human rights capacity-building for magistrates, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and public defenders. 16. The third stage of the global thematic study will be an international global conference,3 during which those guidelines could be finalized and approved. 17. It is expected that the guidelines will be a useful tool for Member States as well as institutions that offer ongoing human rights education programmes and others that monitor their results, and help them to promote the improvement of the effectiveness of capacitybuilding programmes. The guidelines will therefore have the ultimate goal of strengthening rule of law, good governance, the principle of the separation of powers, and democracy by affirming the basic principles for the independence of the judiciary, the role of lawyers and the role of prosecutors. 18. The active participation of all actors involved in the project will be extremely valuable in all its phases, from the responses to the questionnaire to direct participation in the regional consultations leading up to the global international conference. 19. The questionnaire elaborated for the present report was intended to cover the highest number of themes possible with a view to gather comprehensive information on the present state of capacity-building programmes in different judicial systems, and information on their availability, functioning, effectiveness and implementation. The study aims at identifying the elements that could clarify the functioning of existing capacity-building programmes, bearing in mind that it is crucial that the actors of the justice system receive the necessary training to guarantee the quality of their decisions in ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights. Independent judicial systems therefore need to demonstrate integrity, competence, diligence and impartiality. 20. The questionnaire included questions on several aspects of capacity-building. It was intended to collect data and analyse it to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the situation, and divided into the categories of general information; legislation framework; education in human rights and capacity-building for judges and prosecutors; and education in human rights and capacity-building for lawyers and public defenders. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the State Court of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and in particular its information technology department for the extensive support provided for the global study. 21. The section below provides preliminary information on the challenges relating to the capacity-building programmes for the main actors of the justice system, as requested by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 15/3. 22. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the 70 States and entities, as well as the several institutions and non-governmental organizations, that replied to the questionnaire. In several cases, more than one institution from the same State replied to the questionnaire, bringing the total number of replies to 82. 23. The Special Rapporteur would also like to thank the States and institutions that sent additional information for the questionnaire, thereby demonstrating their great interest in the necessity of providing judges, magistrates, prosecutors, lawyers and public defenders with ongoing human rights training and capacity-building. She hopes to receive the same support for the next two stages of the global study, which will be concluded in June 2015. 3 6 See A/HRC/14/26, paras. 78, 80 and 101.