The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has organised a three day training workshop for human rights defenders across the world. The human rights defenders converged in Geneva, Switzerland, from Wednesday 2 December to Friday 4 December 2009. The trial observation training was conducted in the English, Arabic and Spanish languages and the trainer was Paul Richmond, a British human rights lawyer and a member of International Bar Association (IBA).

The trainees were drawn from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Botswana, The Gambia, Uganda, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Thailand, Norway and Italy. However, it was only Uzbekistan, Thailand and Venezuela that send two representatives from different human rights organisations, the other countries had one representative each.

The participants have gone through the different types of trial observation regarding the questions of who is on trial, Why? What for? and How the trial is to be conducted?'. They were also introduced to the process of fair trials, trial observation and the key principles for effective trial monitoring.

One of the key topics discussed was 'Independence of the Judiciary'. Participants were asked to make individual presentations on major fair trial concerns and the current reforms in the respective participating countries.

On day two of the sessions, the training focused on best practice when preparing for and conducting a trial observation. The participants were tasked to write reports on fair trial observations and also introduced to fair trial standards under international law.

The participants, on the third day of the training, went through a mock trial and were engaged in preparing trial observation reports and presentation of these reports as well as group discussions and observation on fair trial.

The training seminar was held in the Zazie Sadou room of the Maison d'Associations in Geneva.