Chapter 6 • The Right to a Fair Trial: Part I – From Investigation to Trial However, an independent and impartial Judiciary capable of ensuring fair trial proceedings is not only of importance to the rights and interests of human beings, but is likewise essential to other legal persons, including economic entities, whether smaller enterprises or large corporations, which often depend on courts of law, inter alia, to regulate disputes of various kinds. For instance, domestic and foreign enterprises will be reluctant to invest in countries where the courts are not perceived as administering justice impartially. Furthermore, it is beyond doubt that in countries where aggrieved persons or other legal entities can have free access to the courts in order to claim their rights, social tension can more easily be managed and the temptation to take the law into one’s own hands is more remote. By contributing in this way to defusing social tensions, the courts of law will contribute to enhancing security not only at the national but also at the international level, since internal tensions often have a dangerous spillover effect across borders. Yet a glance at the jurisprudence of the international monitoring organs makes it clear that the right to a fair trial is frequently violated in all parts of the world. Indeed, the vast majority of cases dealt with by the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol, for instance, concern alleged violations of pre-trial or trial rights. In what follows, a brief survey of the most relevant aspects of the international jurisprudence will accompany the description of the relevant legal rules. 3. The Legal Texts The key legal texts on fair trial are to be found in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, article 8 of the American Convention on Human Rights, and article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The relevant provisions of these articles will be dealt with below under the appropriate headings, while the complete texts will be distributed as handouts. Additional rules to which reference will be made below are inter alia contained in the following United Nations instruments: the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials; the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment; the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners; the Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors and the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers; the Rules of Procedure of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; and the Statute of the International Criminal Court. 216 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers