Background

Signing of the Project Cooperation Agreement by Robert A. Stein, ABA Executive Director and Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP Administrator.

The ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center "ILRC", formerly the "Legal Resource Unit" was established in December 1999, based upon the common commitment of the American Bar Association ("ABA") and the United Nations Development Programme ("UNDP") to support and promote good governance and the rule of law around the world. The mission of the ILRC is to provide a legal resource capability to serve UNDP global governance programs and projects supporting legal reform and democratic institution building. The primary task of the ILRC is to assist UNDP Country Offices to identify candidates capable of providing legal advice, normally on a pro bono basis, on the drafting of legislation, judicial reform, building of legal institutions including professional groups and associations, and other legal dimensions of governance.

Structure

The ILRC commenced operations on February 1, 2000, and has been actively assisting UNDP Country Offices to identify suitable legal expertise. The ILRC staff consists of a Director, a Legal Advisor, and a Project Coordinator. The ILRC Steering Committee, consisting of three attorneys experienced in the development and implementation of international legal assistance projects, provides oversight of all ILRC activities. The ILRC Advisory Committee, is composed of international legal and development experts drawn from academia, government, and the private sector, and provides an unparalleled network for identifying and sourcing legal expertise worldwide.

The functions of the ILRC will be prioritized to reflect UNDP program needs, but mainly will include identification and selection of candidates for the following legal expert positions:

• Resident advisor
• Non-resident advisor
• Workshop speakers/instructors
• Legal commentators to provide review and commentary on legal documents and draft legislation
• Legal facilitators and/or working groups to enhance in-country and regional legal initiatives.

Areas of Work

The ILRC-identified legal experts will support UNDP program countries in a wide array of substantive legal areas including, but not limited to:

• Reform of legal institutions and systems, including reform of constitutional frameworks
• Support to electoral bodies and drafting of electoral laws
• Improvement of legislative drafting and parliamentary practices
• Reform of public sector regulations and processes
• Strengthening anti-corruption measures
• Support for decentralization and strengthening of local institutions
• Development of the capacity of independent lawyers associations
• Legal education and judicial training
• Legal services to the indigent and underrepresented

Operation Philosophy

For those persons who are interested in being considered for legal expert positions through the ILRC, the following should be noted:

1. The ILRC will focus mainly on the identification of legal experts based upon requests from UNDP Country Offices and, in the case of UNDP's inter-country activities, from the appropriate UNDP Headquarters Units including Regional Bureaus.
2. The ILRC will identify legal experts from a wide variety of sources in order to best serve UNDP program objectives in a given country bearing in mind language considerations, cultural norms and the legal traditions of the country to be assisted. In doing so, the ILRC will draw from the ABA's worldwide membership and will also network with the International Bar Association, and appropriate regional and national bar associations and professional organizations.
3. The ILRC will promote the impartiality and neutrality inherently embodied in the UNDP, a multinational development agency, as two imperative components of effective and sustainable development assistance in the often sensitive areas of policy dialogue and institutional development.

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