Human Rights and Conflict Mitigation
Recent Program Highlights
Overview
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| Defense attorneys discuss common problems they face in providing adequate representation for those accused of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. |
The protection of human rights is a critical element of post-conflict reconstruction and conflict mitigation. Violations of human rights are often a precipitating cause of or an exacerbating factor in conflict. The failure to guarantee rights and ensure accountability for war-time abuses can jeopardize a fragile peace and increase the risk of renewed violence in a post-conflict setting. Accordingly, the international community is paying heightened attention to the need to develop laws, legal mechanisms and institutions that can guarantee the protection of human rights and ensure accountability in post-conflict situations.
The Rule of Law Initiative contributes to these efforts by empowering legal professionals and other stakeholders to access government structures and to assert citizens’ rights. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative also strives to increase awareness and implementation of international human rights standards, international humanitarian law and international criminal justice efforts.
- Human Rights Training
- Human Rights and the Constitution in Iraq
- Anti-Torture Activities
- Roma Rights
- Citizens' Rights Advocacy Program
- Public Interest Legal Advocacy Program (PILAP)
- The ICCPR Legal Implementation Index
- War Crimes Documentation Project
- Public Outreach and Education on War Crimes
- Domestic War Crimes Adjudication Training
Human Rights Training
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative has developed a targeted human rights curriculum aimed at the creation of a cadre of local legal professionals capable of applying internationally recognized principles, including protections of minority rights and fair trial standards. In March 2006, a group of 40 prosecutors, Supreme Court justices, members of the Ministry of Justice and Interior, non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives and other policy makers and legal professionals from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended a one-week training at the CEELI Institute in Prague, Czech Republic. During the course, participants discussed basic criminal justice standards set forth in the ICCPR, including the right to a fair trial and the right to judicial oversight of key elements of the pretrial process. The course also aimed at furthering efforts to incorporate ICCPR standards into existing national legis lation.
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative's various country programs also conduct trainings on human rights issues. For instance, in Azerbaijan, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has helped establish a Human Rights Club, which brings together students and local experts to discuss specific provisions set forth in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and their application in everyday life.
In Tajikistan, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has worked on a student-focused broad-based civic education program now known as "My Civic Standing." Although the government withdrew its support for conducting the program in public secondary schools, the student lawyers implementing the project renamed the initiative and continued conducting sessions on basic legal principles, including those focusing on human rights, at discussion clubs, local NGOs and other external venues. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative has also designed and implemented human rights courses at law faculties in Khujand and Dushanbe.
In Morocco, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has established a human rights legal clinic at the Mohamedia law faculty - the first in the region - in order to provide law students with practical lawyering skills focused on human rights protection.
In Cambodia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has established the Human Rights Cambodia Project's (HRCP) clinical legal education program to professionalize and further institutionalize clinical legal education in that country; to enhance the public interest function of clinics by helping develop specialized skills in particular fields of human rights concern; and to strengthen and develop professional commitment among the members of the bar to public service.
Human Rights and the Constitution in Iraq
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative partnered with the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights (MHR) to identify priority areas for public outreach on human rights issues, lobby for strong implementation of constitutional protections of human rights, and address any deficiencies created by the new constitution. The Ministry and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative convened the Iraq Human Rights Group consisting of representatives from government and civil society who are working in the field of human rights. The working group is focusing on a limited set of issues identified as priorities at a strategic planning session facilitated by the ABA Rule of Law Initiative in January 2006. As part of the initiative, the Rule of Law Initiative trained a group of trainers on public outreach techniques for human rights issues, and the participants followed up by implementing several roundtables in different regions of Iraq on topics such as women's rights, human rights education, and the new human rights commission.
Anti-Torture Activities
In fall 2005, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative partnered with the Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture (ACAT) to implement a torture monitoring project at a number of police detention centers and prison facilities. In addition to offering free legal services to those seeking assistance, ACAT monitors cases and facility conditions and publicizes the results of their findings to the local and international community.
Roma Rights
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative recently completed a Roma Citizenship Project in Macedonia, which helped more than 1,100 previously stateless individuals file for citizenship. In August 2004, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative undertook an assessment of the problem of Roma citizenship in Macedonia. Many Roma have not yet regularized their citizenship since Macedonia became independent in 1991. Partly due to international pressure, Macedonia adopted amendments to its Citizenship Law in March 2004 that relaxed the citizenship requirements for long-term residents for a period of two years. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative provided technical and financial support to select NGOs in Macedonia that are working to inform Roma about the benefits of citizenship and to help them submit applications. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative also organized a training for Roma NGOs focusing on legal changes in the procedure for acquiring Macedonian citizenship. Additionally, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative developed a public outreach strategy to access areas of the country not covered by the NGOs with which it was working. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative trained representatives from more than 100 NGOs throughout Macedonia.
Citizens' Rights Advocacy Program
In China, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative provides in-depth technical support for innovative public interest initiatives in four substantive areas: children's rights advocacy, women's rights advocacy, public interest environmental litigation, and access to justice for urban migrants. These areas were identified as providing the most significant or promising openings through which to introduce public interest advocacy skills and concepts that will ultimately have broad application in Chinese society. Focusing in-depth support in these areas will substantially advance the ABA's Rule of Law Initiative long-term goals of building the capacity and effectiveness of China's legal advocates, enhancing citizens' knowledge of and access to the legal system, and developing legal norms that are protective of citizens' rights.
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| Brian Rohan, resident legal advisor for the Rule of Law Initative Cambodia program, participates in a 2005 PILAP press conference. |
Public Interest Legal Advocacy Program (PILAP)
In Cambodia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative supports PILAP, a high-impact legal advocacy project housed at the Community Legal Education Center, a Cambodian NGO. The central objective of PILAP is to promote the use and effectiveness of "impact legal advocacy." These are legal actions that have a strong potential to generate publicity and debate and that demand broader accountability and respect for legal norms beyond the mere bounds of the case and the parties involved.
The ICCPR Legal Implementation Index
To complement its human rights work, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has developed the ICCPR Legal Implementation Index to assess a country's compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Index provides an inquiry framework for examining whether a country's laws and institutions adequately protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of its citizens as delineated in the ICCPR. The Index was first implemented in Macedonia in June 2004.
War Crimes Documentation Project
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative, together with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), developed the capacity to collect and catalog information about human rights violations and war crimes in a specially designed database that allows for rapid retrieval and statistical analysis. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative implemented a significant war crimes documentation project in Kosovo, leading to the publication of an expert report, which was subsequently entered into evidence in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). From December 2003 to March 2006, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative continued the war crimes documentation project in Sierra Leone. Additionally, in the summer of 2004, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative partnered with the Coalition for International Justice to collect data from refugees in Chad who fled the violence in Darfur.
Click here to learn more about the War Crimes Documentation Project
Public Outreach and Education on War Crimes
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative is currently assisting the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) as it transforms itself from a legal aid society into a war crimes documentation center. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative is assisting the process through financial and technical assistance. The HLC provides victims and witnesses of war crimes with legal support, serves as a repository for data and evidence related to war crimes committed during the conflict of the 1990s, and is linked to other documentation centers in Sarajevo and Zagreb.
Domestic War Crimes Adjudication Training
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative's current work in Croatia consists of improving the capacity of the Croatian legal system to adjudicate war crimes in a fair and transparent manner. Croatia has been sharply criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, and others over its inappropriate handling of war crimes cases. As the ICTY prepares to transfer some war crimes cases back to countries in the region for domestic prosecution, the level of concern about Croatia's capacity has risen. In response, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative has developed and is implementing a training program, which gives police, prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys the skills to handle such cases.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in response to requests for materials from local practitioners, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative's criminal law program developed and distributed the Practical Guide to War Crimes Prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The book is a source of practical information for local lawyers and seeks to increase local capacity to handle such cases in BiH. It contains a collection of articles written by both local and international lawyers as well as relevant international and national laws addressing war crimes. Also in BiH, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative recently publish a Guidebook for Defense Attorneys on New BiH Criminal Laws; War Crimes in BiH (final and binding cases in BiH 1992 - 2006) and held a regional seminar for defense attorneys from BiH, Croatia, and Serbia.
