A/HRC/24/14 8. The mechanism for law enforcement monitoring had operated over the past three years. It provided for broad participation of civil society in the evaluation of the effectiveness of legislation, as well as in the analysis of the need for legal amendments. Over the past four years the civil society institutions had been able to independently evaluate legislation. 9. The concept of open government provided many opportunities for the active involvement of civil society in the process of oversight over the Government’s activities. The posts of Ombudspersons for children’s rights and the rights of entrepreneurs had been set up alongside the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) and the Council on the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. 10. The Government continued administrative reforms aimed at increasing access to government services and limiting the competences of specific public officials, including those leading to arbitrary decisions and human rights violations. 11. The procedures for creating and registering non-commercial organizations had been simplified and their periodic reporting had been brought down to a minimum. The registration requirements of political parties had also been revised and simplified. More than 60 political parties had been registered and their number had been constantly growing. 12. Video broadcasting from more than 90,000 polling stations was introduced through the Internet during the 2012 presidential elections to ensure transparency of the voting process, which would continue to operate for all subsequent elections. 13. While some difficulties remained in the army, the penitentiary system and some social institutions, significant progress had been made. In particular, reforms in in the penitentiary system had started in 2009, such as revision of the criminal legislation, which shifted the focus towards alternative punishments to deprivation of liberty. As a result, the number of persons sentenced to imprisonment was decreased and the ratio between persons sentenced to imprisonment and alternative forms of punishments had also gone down from 3:1 to 2:3. 14. Another important area of the prison reform was to increase the guarantees of the rights of inmates, such as access to medical care, educational services, acquisition of professional skills and rehabilitation. The public oversight commissions, comprised of representatives of civil society, had regular access to all penitentiary institutions. 15. Significant measures were taken to eliminate corruption, including the amendment of relevant legislation. The authorities worked closely in this area with the relevant international and regional intergovernmental bodies. 16. The law-enforcement bodies had been reorganized, additional guarantees limiting their activities had been created and mechanisms for the eradication and prevention of all forms of torture and cruel treatment had been established. 17. Several measures had been undertaken to increase the independence of the courts and transparency of their proceedings. Any interested person could obtain information related to the functioning of the courts and to the proceedings of criminal and civil cases, subject to the data protection requirements. All court decisions had been published and were widely accessible. 18. In 2011 the possibility of determining the composition of the court through automated computer systems was provided, allowing for random selection of judges and thus minimizing the chances of appointing persons interested in the outcome of specific cases. Several draft laws had been initiated to suppress attempts by individuals or officials to influence court proceedings and decisions and to provide guarantees against abuse of 4