International Legal Assistance Consortium

Rebuilding Justice Systems

Chatham House Hosts Seminar Highlighting ILAC’s Key Findings from 2017 Justice Sector Assessment in Syria

Chatham House and ILAC seminar on ILAC´s Syrian Assessment

Chatham House seminar on The Syrian Justice System

ILAC and Chatham House held a seminar based on ILAC’s 2017 Syria Rule of Law Assessment at Chatham House in London last Wednesday. The panel discussed non-state courts in Syria and their role in areas outside the Syrian government’s control.

Drawing on the assessment findings, ILAC´s Legal Adviser and report writer Mikael Ekman offered an outline of the judicial bodies across Syria and how they differ from the government justice system.

  No effort to build rule of law starts from zero,” said Ekman. “ILAC´s Syria report is an attempt to show what is there in terms of justice sector institutions in all parts of Syria. This is where the reconstruction of Syria will start, irrespective of what a future peace will look like.

[Read more…]

ILAC Successfully Completes Rule of Law & Justice Sector Assessment Mission in Guatemala

Guatemala Rule of Law & Justice Sector Assessment Mission´s Team

Experts team having meeting in Guatemala

ILAC completed a rule of law and justice sector assessment mission in Guatemala on Friday, 20 October 2017. Our team, composed of 8 experts, investigated ongoing efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Guatemala to provide a reliable roadmap for more effective ways forward.

ILAC’s mission comes at a critical moment in Guatemala’s history, when corruption and impunity continue to pose serious challenges despite sustained efforts to reform the judicial system. [Read more…]

ILAC Welcomes the Siracusa Institute as a New Member 

Siracusa Institute ILAC is delighted to welcome the The Siracusa Institute as a new member organisation.

Based in Italy, The Siracusa Institute has been working to contribute to international peace and security through the effective implementation of criminal law and criminal justice, and to promote the rule of law and the protection of human rights in criminal justice systems worldwide.

ILAC’s 2017 Annual General Meeting in Tokyo voted unanimously in favour of the Institute joining our Consortium. [Read more…]

ILAC Welcomes Shane Quinn as Our New Director of Programmes 

ILAC is delighted to announce Shane Quinn as our new Director of Programmes starting today.

Shane Quinn

Shane Quinn, ILAC Director of Programmes

Shane brings to ILAC over 14 years’ experience in rule of law development, public sector governance reform and peacebuilding. He has worked in several international civil society organisations in Sweden and as a consultant in Eastern Europe and Africa.

While in Kenya, Shane managed a peacebuilding programme with civil society partners in conflict analysis and establishing platforms for non-state actors linked to the ongoing peace process in Somalia. Most recently, he co-developed a toolkit in Rule of Law in Public Administration for the UNDP and Folke Bernadotte Academy, where he was the acting Head of Rule of Law Programme. [Read more…]

In Memoriam:  Cherif Bassiouni, International Criminal Law and Human Rights Champion

Prof. Cherif Bassiouni as a United Nations expert on human rights in Afghanistan. Photo: Wikipedia

It is with great sadness that members of ILAC learn of the death of Professor Cherif Bassiouni, who died peacefully at home on 25 September 2017.

Cherif Bassiouni played an influential role in a series of seminars in the late ‘90s that discussed the setting up of ILAC. He was at that time the immensely respected Professor of Law at the DePaul University College of Law.

But he was much more than a legal academic, having served with distinction on a number of United Nations Commissions, notably chairing the Commission of Experts charged with investigating violations of Humanitarian Law in former Yugoslavia, which led to the setting up of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  Cherif went on to chair various UN Committees that brought into being the International Criminal Court. More recently he led the Bahrain International Commission of Inquiry and the UN Commission of Inquiry for Libya. [Read more…]

ILAC Honours Mister Hamdi for Contributing with our Work in Tunisia

ILAC offers a give to Mr Mohamed Tahar Hamdi in Tunisia

Mr Mohamed Tahar Hamdi receives a present from ILAC´s Field Coordinator in Tunisia, Ismaël Benkhalifa.

 ILAC offered Mr Mohamed Tahar Hamdi a present in sign of appreciation for his efforts to facilitate the Consortium´s Tunisia Programme. Mr Hamdi is now retiring from his position as Director General of the Judicial Training Institute (ISM). Established in 1985, the Institute provides initial training for judicial auditors and in-service training of magistrates. [Read more…]

ILAC Participates in 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly

General Assembly Meeting Room, United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA.

ILAC will send a high-level delegation to attend the 72nd Session in the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York starting today. ILAC’s delegation has been invited to join the g7+ to discuss “Accelerating Progress toward SDG 16 – Vision of Access to Justice for All in Conflict Affected Countries,” an event organised by the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone, Chair of g7+, Timor-Leste, and the g7+ Secretariat.

The General Assembly side-event will provide an opportunity for the g7+ ministers of justice to share their views on addressing priority needs and challenges for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 16.

[Read more…]

International Criminal Court to Receive 2017 Stockholm Human Rights Award

The Principals of the International Criminal Court, Registrar Herman von Hebel, President, Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi and Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Photo: Micke Lundström

Stockholm, Sweden

ILAC congratulates the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its nomination to receive the 2017 Stockholm Human Rights Award. The prize will recognize the ICC´s work advancing international justice and strengthening respect for human rights.

The International Legal Assistance Consortium, the Swedish Bar Association and the International Bar Association bestow the Stockholm Human Rights Award annually to a person or organisation for outstanding services in the support of human rights and the rule of law. [Read more…]

New Syria Report: Launch Event in Berlin

 

Photo courtesy of: DAV/ Andreas Burkhardt

ILAC continued the public launch of our 2017 Syria Rule of Law Assessment report this month with an event in Berlin hosted by the German Bar Association.

ILAC’s Rule of Law Assessment Report, Syria 2017  provides a baseline for future reconciliation efforts with a comprehensive, publicly available account of the current state of the Syrian justice sector.

The July 14th event featured ILAC’s Executive Director, Agneta Johansson, as well as Stefan von Raumer, lawyer and member of the German Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee.  Both were experts on ILAC’s Syria assessment mission.

[Read more…]

Overview of ILAC/UNIFEM Gender Justice Initiative by Nina Lahoud:  Presented at the Session on “Exploring ILAC Thematic Issues” at ILAC’s 2016 Annual General Meeting on 20 May in Solna, Sweden

Let me begin by saying that, based on my involvement in establishing ILAC’s gender justice initiative with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), I feel that it is a laudable example of how consensus between two entities on an idea and strategy, rapid buy-in by management, dedicated counterparts on each side, broad outreach, and sustained donor funding can lead to an effective partnership for undertaking targeted activities.  To put this observation in context, I will elaborate on how this initiative was conceived and evolved, which Agneta Johannson and Christian Ahlund know well as the lead ILAC counterparts. [Read more…]

Nina Lahoud Elected to ILAC’s Board of Directors

ILAC is delighted to welcome Nina Lahoud to ILAC’s Board of Directors.  A longtime supporter and ILAC member, Nina will bring over three decades of expertise from the peacekeeping and legal development world, involving numerous United Nations assignments in conflict-affected countries, to our management team.

After leaving the law firm of Shearman & Sterling in 1983 to join the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon/UNIFIL (as the first woman Legal Adviser appointed to a mission), Nina served with the United Nations for over 33 years where she dealt extensively with legal, rule of law, peacekeeping, development and gender matters while serving in various offices at UN Headquarters and in six UN peacekeeping operations deployed in Lebanon, Namibia, Cambodia, Croatia, Kosovo and East Timor at critical historic junctures.  [Read more…]

Syrian Legal Professionals Train on UN Mechanisms   

ILAC co-organised a five-day intensive course on UN human rights and security mechanisms for Syrian legal professionals in Geneva this Spring.

As part of ILAC’s larger Syria Programme, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute  led trainings in Geneva that will sharpen the skills of Syrian legal professionals to help shape resolutions and recommendations on the Syrian crisis in line with international law and UN principles. [Read more…]

Public Seminar in Japan Addresses “A Pivotal Challenge: Building Resilient and Responsive Justice Institutions in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries”

The 2017 ILAC’s Annual General Meeting in Tokyo, Japan, culminated with a public seminar on how rebuilding justice systems can assist developing countries in overcoming fragility and the effects of conflict. The speakers brought a wide range of experience on a very concrete question – what are the challenges and the opportunities presented by the current trend toward inclusion of rule of law and governance goals in contemporary development standards?

[Read more…]

New Report: A Blueprint for Building Criminal Justice Institutions in the Central African Republic

Stockholm, Sweden — The International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) released a new report at the 2017 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development today that recommends how to improve criminal  justice sector institutions in the Central African Republic after years of instability. [Read more…]

ILAC Launches Syria Rule of Law Assessment Report at Sweden’s Permanent Mission to the UN

ILAC Executive Director Agneta Johansson presents new ILAC Syria Rule of Law Assessment report to the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations in New York

ILAC launched its Syria Rule of Law Assessment Report in New York at an event hosted by Sweden’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.  The Swedish Deputy Permanent Representative, Ambassador Irina Schoulgin Nyoni, moderated the April 19 event.

ILAC’s new report explains how justice is administered throughout Syria after six years of conflict and provides a baseline for future reconciliation efforts with a comprehensive, publicly available account of the current state of the Syrian justice sector.

[Read more…]

NEW ILAC REPORT: The Syrian Justice System – Six Years On

Stockholm, Sweden — The International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) today released a new report that explains how justice is administered throughout Syria after six years of conflict. ILAC’s Rule of Law Assessment Report, Syria 2017  provides a baseline for future reconciliation efforts with a comprehensive, publicly available account of the current state of the Syrian justice sector.

“In planning for peace, Syria and the international community will need to base their actions in rebuilding the justice system on what presently exists in Syria today,” said Agneta Johansson, ILAC’s Executive Director and mission leader.  “The breakdown in the government’s control throughout large parts of Syria has led to differences in how justice is administered across the country.  Reinstating a unified system of justice that can uphold the rule of law and provide due process will be a major challenge facing Syria after the war.”

In November and December 2016, ILAC’s nine-person assessment team met with over 100 Syrian legal professionals, civil society actors and international officials. Among those interviewed were approximately 70 Syrian judges and lawyers, who included both those currently practicing law in different parts of Syria, and those who have been forced to flee to neighboring countries due to the conflict.

The team examined the justice sector as it stood before the uprisings in 2011 and used this as a starting point for a comparison of the situation today throughout the country.   [Read more…]

Of Arson & Legal Aid: The Integration of Rule of Law in Peace and Development Policy and Practice

Port au Prince Court of Appeals in Haiti

Court of Appeals of Port au Prince, Haiti. Photo: Christian Åhlund 2005

by Rhodri Williams, Senior Legal Expert, ILAC

One of the common challenges facing rule of law and development practitioners is the need to bridge theory and practice; to demonstrate how concrete context can and should shape the application and the development of international policy and standards, and how international policy and standards can and should have a transformative potential in concrete contexts. In approaching this challenge, it can sometimes be hard to beat a telling anecdote.

[Read more…]

ILAC applauds Tunisian Ombudsman efforts towards democracy

ILAC congratulates the Ombudsman of Tunisia, Mr Abdessattar Ben Moussa, for his outstanding contributions towards democracy. Mr Ben Moussa and ILAC representatives met this month in Tunis, where they reaffirmed their common goal in strengthening rule of law and public trust in the institutions of that country.

The ombudsman is an independent institution created in 1992 that aims to protect the rights of citizens as well as to transform the negative image public administration has amongst citizens. Béji Caïd Essebsi nominated Mr Ben Moussa Administrative Mediator last January. The administrative ombudsman is responsible for considering individual complaints against public institutions and communicating the recommendations to the administrative establishment in order to resolve the dispute.

[Read more…]

ILAC former Executive Director awarded The King´s Medal

Photo: Jonas Ekströmer

Photo: Jonas Ekströmer

ILAC congratulates Christian Åhlund,  ILAC’s founding Executive Director, for having been honoured with the H.M. The King´s Medal by the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden a prize that recognizes his outstanding efforts in human rights and international humanitarian law.

Mr. Åhlund received the 8th size with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim in a ceremony held in the Royal castle in Stockholm at the begging of this month. The two-hundred-year-old tradition is bestowed in several sizes and awards Swedish and foreign citizens for their special virtues and services.

[Read more…]

ILAC Welcomes New Finance & Administration Officer

PatrickILAC is delighted to welcome Patrick Hartwig to our Finance & Admin department!

Patrick has extensive development and administrative experience studying and working abroad throughout Asia and in Brazil. Most recently he worked for IPSOS in Vietnam on market research projects.

Besides quantitative research and a primary interest in political economy and development, he has direct experience working on: indigenous rights and environmental justice in Brazil; trade & investment at the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia; qualitative research about access to microfinance and the informal economy in Ethiopia and; rural development and grant-seeking at a local NGO in Cambodia. [Read more…]

ILAC champions freedom of expression in Tunisia

Freedom of Expression Tunisia

ILAC co-organized a conference on the perspectives on freedom of expression in Sweden and Tunisia after the Revolution at the Faculty of Juridical, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis last week. The event was part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Swedish Press Act, the world´s first legislation on freedom of expression and information.

The Ambassador of Sweden in Tunisia, the State Secretary to the Minister for Justice and Migration of Sweden, the Tunisian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and local renowned law academics attended the conference.

Freedom of expression is one of the achievements in the transition to democracy in Tunisia, where ILAC has been active since 2011 on a variety of programs aimed at rebuilding the justice system. [Read more…]

Mary Robinson Receives Stockholm Human Rights Award

courtesy of the International Bar Association©

Courtesy of the International Bar Association©

Mary Robinson, a former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, received the 2016 Stockholm Human Rights Award recognizing her outstanding contribution to the rule of law and human rights.

The Stockholm Human Rights Award is given annually by ILAC, the Swedish Bar Association and International Bar Association in recognition of those advancing international justice and strengthening respect for human rights.

President Robinson, founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, dedicated the award to all those who struggle for human rights and encouraged that the commitment to human rights must be stronger in difficult times. [Read more…]

ILAC Expands English Training for Syrian Legal Professionals

It is with great pleasure that ILAC announces the extension of an English language training programme for Syrian legal professionals settled in Gaziantep, Turkey.

With the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA) this project aims to build the capacity of the Syrian legal society in Turkey.  In addition to language training, ILAC with AIJA offer Syrian legal professionals  access to information in English, as well as professional networking opportunities to help rebuild their careers.

“It’s an honour for us to extend to a second academic year the English classes in collaboration with ILAC. Studying English means opening up to the world, being able to understand the news and what is happening around us, reading legal texts and being ready for a requalification,”  says Giuseppe Marletta, Association Manager of AIJA. “This is our way to offer a second chance to legal professionals who had to live a country in war. We look forward to another great year of cooperation!”.

Swedish Embassy Reopens in Tunisia

ILAC swedish embassy in tunisiaILAC applauds the reopening of the Swedish diplomatic mission in Tunis, Tunisia after it had been closed for over fourteen years.

An official ceremony this week hosted by the Swedish Foreign Minister, Margot Wallström and attended by her Tunisian counterpart, Khemaies Jhinaoui, and Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi marked the Embassy’s official opening.  ILAC’s Senior Legal Advisor, Selim Abdesselem and our Head of Operations, Silvija Tolmanoska attended the event along with other civil society representatives.  [Read more…]

ILAC Welcomes the Tunisian Bar Association as our Newest Member

ILAC is delighted to welcome the Tunisian Bar Association (Ordre national des avocats de Tunisie, ONAT) as our newest organizational member!

The Tunisian Bar Association is a member  of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, that won the  Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.  As a member of the Quartet, the Tunisian Bar played a prominent role in bringing about true reform in Tunisia that led to presidential and parliamentary elections as well as the ratification of a new constitution in 2014. [Read more…]

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This page is printed from ilacnet.org, Thursday 21st of February 2019
http://www.ilacnet.org/blog/2016/10/12/5660/

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