Featured Story
Georgia Street Law Program Reaches Out to Orphans
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| Orphans in Georgia work together on a Street Law training exercise |
FFor many children living in Georgia’s orphanages, the future is bleak. Without the resources to teach orphans the basic rules that will help them participate more fully in society, many of these children face a life of poverty, lost opportunities and even crime once they are released at the age of 18. But with the help of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s Street Law Program, Law students from Tbilisi State University are hoping to change that.
Daji Avaliani, a Tbilisi State University law student who recently completed her first year in the Street Law Program, came up with the idea to bring Street Law to these high risk children. Other law students liked her idea, realizing the impact this training and attention would have on orphans marginalized by society.
To test this idea, ABA ROLI ran a pilot Street Law Training in Bakuriani on December 18–21. To prepare for the training, law students worked closely with ABA ROLI to develop a new Street Law curriculum while program staff in Tbilisi contacted local orphanages and gauge their interest. In September 2007, ABA ROLI representatives met with Nana Iashvili, director of an NGO called Child and Environment (www.childandenvironment.org.ge), which works with orphans and socially vulnerable children in Tbilisi, as well as in the Imereti and Shida Kartli regions of Georgia. After several meetings, the trainers were able to tailor the existing curriculum to the children’s needs, allowing ABA ROLI to run the pilot.
Sixteen students attended the pilot course from the Tbilisi and Chiatura centers of the organization. Over the three days, they completed a full semester Street Law program, which included sessions on law and legal systems, human rights, criminal law, juvenile rights, and peaceful dispute resolution. At the end of the training, the trainers worked with the students on program evaluation and solicited their ideas about the curriculum. Based on the pilot program experience, the trainers will modify the curriculum and begin teaching in April 2008.
For more information, contact Georgia Senior Legal Advisor Nino Khurtsidze, <nkhurtsidze@abarol.ge>.
aFrica
New Directors Inaugurate Programs in Three African Countries
As the year 2008 gets to a start, the American Bar Association (ABA ROLI) launches country offices in three African countries that show promise for reform. A trio of new country directors—Mathieu Ndongo-Koni in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yolande Fouda in Cameroon, and Kenneth Anderson in Ethiopia—have been recruited to oversee the programs as they promote the rule of law in Africa, a critical region for ABA ROLI’s work.
Mathieu Ndongo-Koni will be overseeing a project to give victims of gender-based violence in the DRC access to justice. The project will respond to the large-scale rape crisis in the country by providing support to local legal infrastructure, conducting targeted prosecution, and assisting victims through a referral network with local health services NGOs. He believes this will “open a window of hope for the thousands of people in the region traumatized by conflict.”
In Cameroon, Yolande Fouda will direct an anti-trafficking in humans program to develop a legal framework for prosecuting traffickers. This framework will incorporate both international statutes as well as domestic offences Prosecutors and judges will then be trained to use this manual when dealing with trafficking offenses.
And Kenneth Anderson will coordinate a capacity building program for the Ethiopian legal community. The program’s first focus will be on comprehensive curricular reform and development for Ethiopian law schools. The second focus will be on improving the training of judges by providing support to judicial training institutes. “I am extremely excited,” says Anderson, “about the opportunity to lead this new ABA ROLI program. This program will promote the continued development of Ethiopia’s judiciary and legal education system, but ultimately the beneficiaries will be the country’s citizens.”
For more information, contact Andrew McPherson, Program Officer for Africa <mcphersa@staff.abanet.org>.
Europe and Eurasia
ABA ROLI Trains All of Armenia’s Trial Court Judges on Case Precedent
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Trial Court judges discussing the use of case law precedents during the ABA ROLI workshop . |
WWith the assistance of the Judicial School of Armenia, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) recently organized and presented a workshop series on the use of case law precedents. All of the judges of Armenia’s courts of first instance were trained over nine weeks in small groups.
Under Armenia’s new Judicial Code, decisions of the Court of Cassation create binding precedents which are issued as published decisions. The purpose of the workshop was to demonstrate to Armenia’s judges—who are not familiar with such a system—how courts in different jurisdictions apply and use case law precedents.
ABA ROLI Judicial Specialist Bruce Herr presented examples of trial court decisions from the United States, showing how these courts apply precedent established by the United States Supreme Court and use decisions from other courts to help interpret and implement Supreme Court case law. Herr also presented examples of how judges in the French civil law tradition used case law to develop concepts of tort liability. ABA ROLI Staff Attorney Arayik Ghazaryan discussed the use of case law by the European Court of Human Rights and the Armenian Court of Cassation.
Justice Sargsyan of the Court of Cassation topped off the workshop with a discussion of how trial court judges should apply recent decisions of that court. At the end of discussions, the participants engaged in various exercises to practice incorporating case law in their decisions.
As the use of case law continues to develop in Armenia, ABA ROLI will continue its trainings for lawyers and courts in the coming year.
For more information, please contact Diane Scott, Program Officer for Armenia and Russia <dscott@staff.abanet.org>.
Middle East and North Africa
Oman Judges Tackle Labor Law Basics
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| Ali Al Issani reviews definitions contained in Omani labor law regarding the employment of women. |
In response to the Sultanate of Oman’s recent amendments to its labor laws and its entry into a free trade agreement with the United States, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), in conjunction with the Omani Ministry of Justice, sponsored a workshop entitled “The Fundamentals of Labor Law” in October 2007 in Muscat.
Though the free trade agreement requires provisions for labor unions in Oman’s laws, the processes of union-formation and collective bargaining are completely new and untested in Oman. Lawyers at the Ministry of Legal Affairs, which drafts most of the Sultanate’s statutes, have highlighted a need for a comparative examination of other systems as they develop their own statutes and rules for implementing the free trade agreement’s required labor law reforms.
The ABA ROLI workshop was jointly led by Mary Joyce Carlson, Counsel to the Health Care Division of the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU), America’s largest health care union; and Ali al-Issani, an Omani lawyer who specializes in labor law for the Ministry of Manpower in the Sultanate. Twenty-two Omani judges attended the workshop, which touched on topics including international labor standards and conventions, union formation, freedom of association, dispute settlement, human trafficking and equal employment rights.
ABA ROLI is committed to working with the Omani Ministry of Justice and other counterparts to continue this dialogue, and support training on this important area of Omani law.
For more information, contact Marjan Horst Ehsassi <mehsassi@staff.abanet.org>
Working Group Sets Judicial Benchmarks for Middle East and North Africa
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| ABA ROLI initiated the creation of the ACJLS in 2005 to meet the need for a regional body of judicial experts in the Middle East. |
The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) supported the development of benchmarks for measuring judicial system performance in the region through its Arab Council for Judicial and Legal Studies (ACJLS) initiative. Experts from the Middle East and North Africa region, working with international experts identified regional benchmarks and set out specific criteria for evaluating justice sector performance. The four main areas covered by these regional benchmarks included judicial independence, access to justice and fair process, well managed judicial systems, and competent and qualified judicial personnel.
In order to evaluate a country’s performance in these areas, a working group of experts created several factors with detailed measurement criteria. They identified qualitative and quantitative measurements for the factors, and they outlined the type of information and statistics required for evaluation. In general, the benchmarks will rely on scores determined by experts and a variety of statistical information and surveys.
The ACJLS plans to pilot the benchmarks in select countries and then further refine them based on the feedback received through this process.
For more information, please contact Program Officer Kathy McEnany <kmcenany@staff.abanet.org>.
People in the News
A Conversation with Rob Boone
The following was taken from Staff News Update, a newsletter for the staff of the American Bar Association]
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| ABA ROLI Director Rob Boone answered questions for the American Bar Association Staff News Update in December 2007. |
Rob Boone is the first director of the Rule of Law Initiative, a public service program that advances the rule of law abroad. The Initiative was established in 2006, when the ABA’s five regional rule of law programs, some dating back 17 years, merged into one.
Staff News Update sat down with Boone to learn more about the Initiative.
The Rule of Law Initiative is relatively new in the ABA. Tell me more about it.
The Rule of Law Initiative is grounded in the ABA’s goal of advancing the rule of law around the world.
Some 400 staff and volunteers work in more than 40 countries. Our programs work with local communities to build transparent, fair and efficient legal systems. We strive to prevent corruption, human trafficking and gender-based violence, among other social threats, while also promoting access to justice, conflict mitigation and human rights. We build awareness of civil rights and confidence in the rule of law.
Before coming to the ABA, you headed many interesting international programs. How does your previous experience relate to your work here?
For the past decade, I worked for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at its headquarters in Vienna as well as in South Africa and before that at the U.S. State Department. While in Vienna, I oversaw programs worldwide, and my colleagues and I helped countries fulfill their rule of law obligations under various UN treaties.
In the field, I headed up the organization’s southern African activities, including training and technical assistance operations. I was privileged to see first hand how our work helped save and improve people’s lives. For example, we ran a series of centers to help survivors of rape and other violence to receive legal, medical and social services. These centers became sanctuaries of safety. The women’s gratitude and hope inspired us to do everything possible for them.
While at State, I was in the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. I developed and managed foreign assistance activities, which ironically included funding of programs such as the Rule of Law Initiative. It was also very satisfying to have led the U.S. delegation to the negotiations of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols, as these are some of the very same international legal instruments that ROLI is helping countries to implement today.
These experiences helped prepare me for the challenges and opportunities of the Initiative.
What are your some of your goals for the Initiative?
The ABA renewed its 17-year commitment to international rule of law with the creation of the Initiative last year. One of my main goals is to build on that commitment, increasing the size and scope of our programs worldwide.
In the short term, we are expanding our programs in Africa, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been successful in substance but modest in scope. New programs are already poised to open in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Mexico.
Achieving these goals requires an experienced and dedicated team. I am committed to hiring and retaining the best people for our programs—in Washington and around the world.
What is one relatively little-known fact about the Rule of Law Initiative?
Few people know the extent to which our programs have helped reform legal systems around the world.
For example, at the end of the Cold War, when Russia wanted to introduce jury trials into its legal system, it turned to us for guidance. Our programs worked with the post-Soviet government to train Russian judges, lawyers and prosecutors on the intricacies of jury trails. As a result, we were present in the courtroom in 1993 when Russia held its first jury trial since czarist times.
Tell us how the Initiative partners with other ABA entities.
We regularly collaborate with ABA entities. Most recently, we worked with the Division of Public Education on a major civic education project in Qatar. The division’s director, Mabel McKinney-Browning, traveled with our staff to Doha where she helped us launch the program, which will include a Law Day in May 2008.
Other examples include our providing expertise and assistance to the World Justice Project, plus our successful partnership with the Commission on Domestic Violence to address gender bias issues in China. These are just a few examples of the many partnerships we’ve forged throughout the ABA.
The support we’ve received from the ABA membership – some of whom who have lived for months or even years in countries where we work -- is extraordinary, and we’re always looking for ways for members to contribute, whether for a day, a week, a month, or even longer.
How can other ABA entities and staff learn more about the Initiative?
The best way to learn more about our programs is to visit our Web site at www.abarol.org. There, colleagues can sign up for the Rule of Law Initiative Update, our monthly e-newsletter.
For ABA staff in the Washington office, we host brown bag lunches throughout the year. These discussions are often led by members of our overseas staff, and they are great ways to learn more about the impact of the Initiative.
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