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It is difficult to drum up widespread, grassroots political support for the rule of law.  In the eyes of many people, the rule of law does not put food on the table.  Worse still, the law can be a source of oppression.  Governments and law-enforcement officials can and do commit crimes.  The role of law in our Apartheid history is an awful example. Understandably, not all South Africans hold the law in high regard.

‘The root of the problem is that instead of fighting for economic equality, women became satisfied by compliments on the effectiveness and vitality of the juggling act’.  Save the Children recently published its 13th report ranking the state of mothers worldwide. The report uses data from the United Nations and World Health Organization to rank the education, wages and health of women and mothers in different nations. Israel is ranked the 45th best country to raise children, out of 165 countries studied.

The press reports concerning the re-emergence of vigilantism in the form of Cape Flats kangaroo courts, some involving children too, suggest that it is time to consider some of the causes of vigilantism. It is worthwhile to reflect upon the conditions in society which give rise to the levels of frustration, and indeed anger, which permit vigilantism to flourish when ordinary folk take the law into their own hands.

The international development community has long been dedicated to strengthening the “rule of law.” And with good reason. It is generally accepted that unless people are equal before the law and entitled to its benefits, sustainable economic growth, a vibrant and transparent political process, and effective human rights protections, just don’t happen. In fact, they are threatened.

Malala Yousafzai was named after “Malala of Maiwand,” a fabled Pashtun poet and warrior woman: fitting for a child who began writing of her life under the Taliban for the BBC at the age of 11.

In some developing countries, informal or traditional justice systems resolve up to 80 percent of disputes, over everything from cattle to contracts, dowries to divorce. Disproportionately, these mechanisms affect women and children.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been successful on many levels. They could be understood by all. They could be implemented universally. They have become the development horizon for 140 governments in the South and the coherent cooperation agenda for another 50 governments of the North.

As the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index® illustrates, a country’s adherence to international standards for the rule of law depends on both written laws and actual compliance. Governments that respect and enforce the rule of law and actively work to ensure equal opportunity for all citizens will be more successful in protecting human rights and, importantly, will be perceived as being more fair and legitimate.

In our second year as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we expanded the WJP Rule of Law Index® to cover 66 countries and jurisdictions, held our World Justice Forum III in which we presented the inaugural World Justice Project Rule of Law Award to Arthur Chaskalson and Aruna Roy, and expanded the network of leaders working together to strengthen the rule of law. Read the Annual Report

SoFEA stands for Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents. The word means ‘Wisdom’ in Persian. The project symbolizes its namesake by enhancing knowledge level of vulnerable adolescent girls in rural Bangladesh on issues that are crucial for them to understand, not just as adolescents, but as individuals partaking in a complex society.

   

The purpose of this Guide is to provide an orientation for politicians regarding the basic elements of the rule of law. The Guide was inspired by discussions within the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government. The process of preparing the material was initiated and supervised by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University, Sweden, and the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL), the Netherlands.

It is a bad week for the rule of law in South Africa when in the space of two days President Zuma and the Judicial Service Commission both reveal that they have scant regard for their respective duties to uphold the rule of law. The president is clearly bound by a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment that requires the National Prosecuting Authority to make a redacted record of what was under consideration by it when it was decided to stop the prosecution of the president on over 700 charges of corruption in 2009.

Ensuring the rule of law means people have access to justice. In a recent report, HiiL and its network of rule of law experts and innovators reviewed the state of the art. Legal needs research has shown that civil justice and administrative justice are delivered by a great many providers of services: public courts and private legal services; formal procedures and informal ones; traditional processes and innovative approaches. Together, these services provide access to justice, but providers of such services face some major challenges.

For those of us in the direct line of Hurricane Sandy, it seems appropriate to highlight recent developments in international disaster law.

The rights of migrant workers have become one of the defining human rights issues in Southeast Asia, as the number of workers on the move has risen dramatically in recent decades.

Corporate governance has become a catchword in many legal systems, the more so today than ever before. Corporate and accounting frauds coupled with general dissatisfaction by shareholders on the ways corporate executives control and manage companies in which they have invested have accentuated the need for mechanisms which will make the management of companies more transparent. The need for such transparency reached a crescendo after the Enron Scandal in the US, which led to major financial losses to investors.

I would like to explore a new rule of law with you. A funny one. One that could confront you in the future (but you won’t know that until that future is there).