Featured Story

Innovative Program Helps Combat Human Trafficking by Fostering International Cooperation

(photo credit: Kay Chernush for US State Department) More than 1 million Ukrainians go abroad every year looking for a better life, many of whom unfortunately fall into networks of human traffic.

Anew ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) program will focus on increasing mutual legal assistance between Ukraine and its neighbors Poland, Russia, and Turkey—the top three destination countries for Ukrainian victims of human trafficking. The program, called “Strengthening Capacities in Mutual Legal Assistance to Counter Human Trafficking in Ukraine,” is funded by the Royal Danish Embassy in Ukraine and will be jointly implemented with the International Organization for Migration.

Given the increasing number of human trafficking crimes currently being investigated and prosecuted in Ukraine, the project begins at an important time.  Ukraine has made recent efforts to counter human trafficking, but it still fails to meet a number of important benchmarks. The U.S. Department of State’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report placed Ukraine on the “Tier 2 Watch List” for its “insufficient progress in prosecuting and punishing trafficking offenses in 2006.”

But Ukraine cannot tackle this problem alone. The success of criminal investigations of human trafficking cases often depends on destination countries’ assistance in the gathering of evidence.

Ukrainian officials currently face a lack of responsiveness from their counterpart institutions abroad. This is due to several factors including: the low prioritization of trafficking crimes; the lack of administrative capacity; and the complicated, formal bureaucracy currently in place for requesting information. To face these challenges, the new ABA ROLI project will explore ways to create a better system for communicating requests for assistance between the countries.

The project will also evaluate Ukraine’s participation in Interpol and identify opportunities to use the international law enforcement agency to fill gaps in cooperation. By taking a multilateral approach to the problem of human trafficking in Ukraine, ABA ROLI’s latest program builds on successful frameworks that the organization has used to help combat trafficking in other countries including Nigeria and Ecuador.

For more information, please contact Maria Vasylieva, Ukraine Counter Human Trafficking Project Coordinator, MVasylieva@abaceeli.kiev.ua

Latin America and the Caribbean

Carlos Perez, an Assistant United States Attorney from Orlando, Florida, discusses trial preparation at ABA ROLI’s Ecuador Criminal Justice project training in Riobamaba, Ecuador.

Prosecutors, police and judges in Ecuador are praising a recent criminal law training on the country’s new adversarial trial system.  This positive response from the participants underscored the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI) success in bridging systemic change with public education in rule of law promotion.

Ecuador’s recent move from an inquisitorial legal system to an adversarial system has advanced the rule of law in the country.  Still, many lawyers and judges lack familiarity with such a system, ultimately diluting its effectiveness.

ABA ROLI recognizes that it is helpful for members of the legal system to have frequent discussions on the nuts and bolts of criminal justice issues. These issues, covered among others in the trainings, include: police investigations, trial preparation, and explanation of the judge’s oversight of procedures and evidence.

The October 2007 training was the second in a three-part series on the new adversarial system.  ABA ROLI organized the trainings in Quito, Guayaquil, Loja, and Riobamba during the first two weeks of October.  In every city, participants lauded the dynamic and interactive instruction, and many asked for more training on a regular basis.  One prosecutor noted that the workshop “has had a direct impact on our daily practice and increased the chances that we will be successful in prosecuting cases.”

The third and final set of trainings will take place in Ecuador in February, 2008.

For more information, contact Dan Becker <beckerd2@staff.abanet.org>, Associate Director for Finance and Programs in Latin America

Europe and Eurasia

Georgia Street Law Program Moving Ahead Toward Long-Term Sustainability

Attendees exchange ideas during the street law training at Tbilisi State University. The training marks the beginning of a full-scale Street Law Clinic at the institution.

This was one of the most interesting, effective, and relevant trainings we have received either in Georgia or elsewhere,” stated one of the law students participating in the most recent ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) street law training in Tbilisi. The training, conducted from October 11 to 13, 2007, marks the beginning of a full-scale Street Law Clinic at Tbilisi State University (TSU) Law Faculty modeled after a successful Street Law Clinic program at Georgetown University.  The clinic aims to advance the general public’s knowledge of and confidence in Georgia’s legal system.

Through the program, twenty masters students from TSU Law Faculty will serve as street law trainers in ten high schools throughout Tbilisi. The TSU students will, over the course of nine weeks, co-teach 15 high school students in pairs on subjects relevant to the rule of law including the law and the legal system, constitution and democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms, criminal justice, civil law and civil law relations, juvenile justice, and conflict resolution.

In preparation for these nine-week pairings, clinic participants were introduced to interactive teaching methods such as discussions, role playing, simulation, and mock trial.  They examined the elements and methodology of an effective lesson, discussed how street law lesson plans can be created, and the value of the Street Law Program for high school students, teachers, law students, and the larger society.  At the end of the training, the students created and taught their own mini street law lessons.  They will start using the newly acquired skills in Tbilisi high schools at the end of the month.

The clinic officially began in September 2007, two years after the ABA Rule of Law Initiative began working on small-scale Street Law seminars in Georgia. The clinic is now incorporated into the law syllabus, and students who participate will receive ten academic credits upon completion. Acceptance into the program is highly competitive, and only 37 percent of applicants are accepted.

For more information on ABA ROLI’s Legal Education Program contact Senior Legal Advisor Nino Khurtsidze <nkhurtsidze@abarol.ge>

Legal Education Program Bridges Serb-Kosovar Ethnic Divide

Serb law students from the northern town of Mitrovica are introduced to the Kosovo Legal System.

O ver the past year, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has been working with the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates (KCA) Commission on Women and Minorities to encourage and recruit minority lawyers, including lawyers from Kosovo’s Serbian population.  As part of this effort, ABA ROLI hosted a recent seminar, funded by the US Agency for International Development, for students from the Serbian law faculty in the northern town of Mitrovica.  The seminar, titled “An Introduction to the Kosovo Legal System,” was met with great enthusiasm.

The university in Mitrovica houses the Serbian faculties of the University of Pristina, which were relocated there in 1999. Serb law graduates of the faculty in Mitrovica are not exposed to Kosovo criminal or civil procedure during their studies, nor do they learn the intricacies of Kosovo legal system as their counterparts do in Pristina.

To counter this divisive pattern, ABA ROLI worked with the KCA to develop a half-day program which included speakers from the Kosovo bar and bench, and covered topics such as qualifications for the bar exam, registration procedures for advocates, application procedure for judges, and the structure of the court system in Kosovo. Should participants choose to work in the legal system in Kosovo, the program gives them the practical tools to do so. 

Based on the success of these preliminary seminars and meetings, more programs, including court visits and civil and criminal procedure classes, are being planned.

For more information, contact Laura Berger <lberger@staff.abanet.org>, Program Officer for Kosovo/Serbia.

Moroccan Judges Reach Consensus on Agenda for Deepening Reforms

Participants conduct strategic planning with facilitator Mustapha Bouhaddou

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) recently facilitated a strategic planning retreat for the board members of the Hassania, Morocco’s judges’ association. The retreat provided an unprecedented opportunity for the board members to draft an action plan to promote Morocco’s first charter of judicial conduct. The workshop also gave the judges an opportunity to discuss the challenges they face under the current period of democratic transition in Morocco. 

Seventeen prominent judges from various regions of Morocco participated in the retreat.  Mustapha Bouhaddou, a Moroccan expert on NGO management, facilitated the discussions on the organization’s goals. During his presentation, he covered various methods for fostering communication among board members, improving the organization’s financial situation, and working with the Minister of Justice on subjects of common interest.

During the retreat, the judges also discussed ideas for securing judicial independence, fostering ethics, improving judicial training, and strengthening the administrative and organizational functions of the Hassania.  Most importantly, the judges agreed to make the implementation of a charter of judicial ethics their main priority. This objective will be the primary focus of the first of three regional ABA ROLI-sponsored Hassania roundtables to take place in the eastern city of Oujda later this year.

For more information, contact Marjan Horst Ehsassi, Sr. Program Manager for Algeria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco and Oman <mehsassi@staff.abanet.org>.

Research Log

Report Details Vital Impact of Rule of Law Assistance in East Timor

The Rule of Law Assessment team for East Timor, including delegates from the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, USAID, the Australian Agency for International Development, and the Asia Foundation.

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI) Research and Program Development Office recently released an assessment of East Timor’s justice sector. The report, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Rights Consortium, found that foreign assistance provided by the United States to advance the rule of law has indeed had a vital impact in the newly independent country.

The assessment team found that the USAID mission in East Timor has been especially adept at utilizing creative approaches to provide targeted, foundational, and cost-efficient assistance to key justice actors, ministries, and agencies. They also recommended that rule of law programming remain a priority for U. S. government funding, and identified the following priority areas for future assistance:

• Increasing access by individuals to informal and traditional forms of justice
• Capacity building through enhanced legal education that strengthens the National Law Faculty, justice actors and support staff
• Supporting land reform and the necessary conditions for the peaceful return by internally displaced persons to their homes
• Empowering and supporting civil society, human rights organizations, and individual human rights defenders
• Increasing public information and outreach regarding the justice sector.

Mary Adele Greer, senior advisor for ABA ROLI’s Criminal Law Program, partnered with Alexander Gupman, senior program manager for Freedom House, to lead this comprehensive evaluation. The assessment team also included international and Timorese representatives from the East Timor and Washington, D.C. offices of USAID and the Australian Agency for International Development.  Representatives from the Asia Foundation and Management Sciences for Development, Inc. also participated in the assessment.

Click on the following link to read the assessment of the rule of law in East Timor.