proceedings; the Civil, Commercial and Social Procedure Code which defines the rules for conducting civil trials; the law on criminal minority which lists the courts for children. 124. The right to a fair trial includes several elements, particularly the right to respect the presumption of innocence, the right to refer one’s dispute to an independent and impartial court and the right to have one’s legal proceedings conducted fairly. 125. The right to respect the presumption of innocence is affirmed by the Constitution, which provides in Article 9 that "... every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent court. The right to defence, including the right to be assisted by a counsel of one’s choice, is guaranteed from preliminary investigation.” 126. Several measures have equally been adopted to limit the abuse of pre-trial detention. 127. Within the framework of strengthening the rule of law and enhancing the effectiveness of the judiciary, the PRODEJ Action Plan strengthened the principles of presumption of innocence and that of respecting human rights defence, which constituted major innovations in the New Criminal Procedure Code (Law No. 01-080 of 20 August 2001). 128. It appears that the judicial system is not sufficiently efficient and requires support in terms of capacity building and training. To reverse the trend, the Government has taken some steps with a view to enhancing the credibility of justice, the devolution of the judicial administration to ensure greater access to justice delivery services and establishing Centres for Access to Law and Justice (CADJ), as well as creating a legal assistance programme to ensure fair trials and improving access to justice for women and children. Government has initiated and implemented the Ten-Year Justice Development Programme (PRODEJ), which aims at facilitating access to justice for citizens, developing alternative methods of conflict resolution, ensuring that court rulings are more credible including the protection of public and individual freedoms. A policy was developed and launched in January 2009 with the view to improving services for litigants, which policy was accompanied by a 2009-2011 action plan. 129. The results of the PRODEJ show significant achievements including, inter alia, the adoption of the Charter of the values of justice and the signing of the justice renewal pact, the development and launch on 21 January 2008 of the men/women equality policy, the second reading of the Civil, Commercial and Social Procedure Code to improve the business environment and practice, the second reading of the judicial map which seeks to modernize the judicial system and bring justice closer to litigants; the results also show increased investments in infrastructure, equipment and logistics as well as a substantial rise in the budget for the judiciary. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 8) 130. Under Article 4 of the Constitution: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, worship, opinion, expression and creation in accordance with the law". 33