A/HRC/12/41 page 5 12. The GDP also highlighted several OHCHR concerns in its own 2009 annual report. Prisons are severely overcrowded, impacting adversely on the health of prisoners living in congested cells, as well as on the ability of the GDP to provide rehabilitation activities and rely more on dynamic security methods as opposed to simply containing prisoners. The GDP is faced with a growing prison population, without a corresponding increase in the prison budget, leading to insufficient quantity and quality of food provided to prisoners, poor health services, and a lack of maintenance of prison facilities. 13. Constructive dialogue with the GDP and engagement with other outside actors involved in the prison sector enabled OHCHR to start supporting the Department in addressing these and other serious issues identified during prison visits. Four of the main OHCHR recommendations were accepted and are in the process of being implemented: (a) a review and update of the sub-decree regulating prisoners’ rations and cell equipment to increase the daily food allocation per detainee from 1,500 to 2,800 riels (US$ 0.37 to US$ 0.70); (b) a review of the function and role of the prisoners’ committees, the bodies originally set up in prisons to improve the control and management of prisoners, but which have been implicated in the abuse and ill-treatment of prisoners; (c) recognition of the need to address issues of corruption within the prisons, as manifested inter alia by staff charging money for family visits or access to other services; and (d) the need for minimum design standards for construction of prisons. 14. In recent years, several new prisons have been built to replace old ones, but the GDP has had little say regarding construction standards. These prisons rapidly proved to be poorly designed and/or built. This has burdened the Department with additional infrastructural and management concerns, directly impacting on the conditions of detention. In 2008 OHCHR coordinated cooperation between the GDP, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Australian Agency for International Development to help the GDP to adopt minimum standards for prison construction to guide future projects. Draft minimum standards were jointly developed and submitted to the GDP in May 2009. 15. The increasing prison population places enormous pressure on existing facilities. Access to water and sanitation is poor in many prisons: prisoners lack water for drinking and washing, while some sewage systems pose serious health and environmental hazards. OHCHR has begun conducting needs assessments and making proposals to improve water and sanitation facilities in selected prisons. It is working with the GDP and provincial authorities to connect the prison in Battambang (and neighbouring communities) to the city water supply system and is assessing water supply conditions in Correctional Centre No. 1 in Phnom Penh, and in several other prisons. 16. OHCHR regards this prison support programme as exemplary of the new spirit of constructive cooperation that it has been seeking to develop with interested governmental institutions. B. Rule of law 17. The rule of law programme seeks to promote adherence to international human rights standards within Cambodia; to promote and strengthen State institutions responsible for providing individuals with an effective remedy for human rights violations; and to encourage the