ABA Rule of Law Initiative Program Book 2013

Introduction

Over the past two decades, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has learned that strengthening the rule of law is only possible through collaboration with host-country partners who share our commitment to delivering justice, fostering economic opportunity and ensuring respect for human dignity. Such norms are not only sown and nurtured in law schools and courtrooms, but everywhere that people live, learn and labor. While fostering the traditional components of a transparent and fair justice system—including empowered legal professionals, efficient courts, and well-drafted and effectively implemented legislation—remains central to our work, promoting the rule of law extends beyond the courthouse. Our recent work is marked by new initiatives that, for example, touch upon key needs in the areas of health, economic development and media rights.

We have developed the HIV/AIDS Assessment Tool to analyze a country’s compliance with international legal standards on the protection of people affected by HIV. Other programs support prosperous and responsible commercial enterprises by bolstering intellectual property rights, strengthening contract enforcement or combating cybercrime, or by protecting communities whose land, water or air have been impacted by extractive industries. To foster transparency, we educate journalists, bloggers and civil society organizations (CSOs) on their freedoms and responsibilities. Further, we are developing a guide on strategic litigation in the areas of public health, climate change and food security. Each of these is an important component in achieving our mission. 

At the same time, we continue to develop our core thematic areas. We increase access to justice, for example, through the provision of legal aid for the indigent in Armenia and for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Among other efforts, we strive to uphold human rights by empowering lawyers and CSOs to meet the needs of people with disabilities in China and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens in Russia.

ABA ROLI public integrity programs include efforts that prepare Panamanian police officers to work under an accusatorial justice system and that conduct anti-corruption trainings in Moldova and in Morocco. Our criminal law reform programs train legal professionals—from Georgia and Tajikistan to Mexico and Peru—as they implement new criminal procedure codes. Our anti-human trafficking programs in Azerbaijan, the Solomon Islands and elsewhere expand services for survivors while improving governmental responses.

We work with judges and court personnel in Egypt, Haiti, Kazakhstan and the Philippines, among other countries, to improve judicial operations through systemized training, procedural reforms and technological advances. Additionally, ABA ROLI collaborates with law schools worldwide to upgrade curricula, to establish clinical legal programs and to encourage skills-building activities, thereby preparing the next generation of legal professionals. We educate youth and adults, including in the DRC and in Jordan, about their rights and responsibilities, along with threats to their safety and liberty.

ABA ROLI also supports the legal profession by offering technical assistance to bar associations, formalizing continuing legal education regimes and promoting legislative reforms, including in countries undergoing historic transitions such as Libya and Tunisia. And finally, we foster respect for women’s rights and encourage full participation of women in the legal profession by supporting programs that educate communities on women’s rights, that train legal professionals to better respond to SGBV and other areas of law that disproportionately affect women and girls, and that establish mentoring programs for young female legal professionals. 

Taken together, ABA ROLI’s efforts, pursued with our partners worldwide, enhance and multiply those necessary and helpful activities that governments, civil society, communities and individuals undertake daily that improve the delivery of justice, that contribute toward equitable global development and that foster respect for individual rights. As you read more, I hope you are as inspired by these initiatives as my ABA ROLI colleagues and I continue to be.