Government

It is likely that most US citizens who consider themselves informed about global events are aware of the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and East Timor, yet it’s likely that few people in the US are aware of the ongoing genocide in West Papua, New Guinea.

The Rule of Law Index is an invaluable tool for assessing conformance to the rule of law across the globe, but the index fails to measure an important indicator. Rule 5.1 specifies "the laws are publicized and accessible" as a key metric, echoing most classic formulations of the Rule of Law from Dicey's classic formulation to our modern era.

The World Justice Project’s Honorary Chair Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim is a Sudanese-born, British mobile communications tycoon, the founder of Celtel, and the chairman of Satya Capital and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

The crime of forced internal displacement is not a new phenomenon in Colombia. It has been a widespread practice in the country’s internal armed conflict for several decades. However, forced internal displacement cannot be reduced to an inherent or unintended effect of the conflict. The armed actors in the Colombian armed conflict—the army and its paramilitary groups, on one hand, and the guerrilla groups, on the other—have used the practice of forced displacement of civilian populations as part of their military strategies to take control of or maintain a presence in certain territories.

The 67th UN General Assembly recently adopted an unprecedented resolution emanating from its first-ever High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law in September. For the first time in history, 193 Member States unanimously and explicitly linked the rule of law and development, stating:

A wave of protests has swept across the streets of Khartoum and other major cities in Sudan; adding to the long list of problems that are fundamentally challenging Omar al-Bashir and his 23-year old repressive regime.

On November 24, 2012, more than a hundred textile workers died when a factory in Bangladesh was engulfed in fire. Will this day haunt the 160 million Bangladeshis in the years to come? Unlikely. The country has faced numerous tragedies. While some were a result of natural disasters, most can be attributed to sheer negligence, lack of accountability and effective regulatory enforcement. Earlier in the year, a capsized ferry resulted in the death of 110 people. In July 2011, 40 school children were killed in a school bus accident.

I recently attended proceedings for a dozen detainees who were being held by the National Directorate of Security (“NDS”) for charges relating to national security.

The international “rule of law community” now has about 30 years of experience in helping countries establish, maintain and improve the rule of law over time.  The fact that countries are continuing to seek expertise from outside their borders as a way to move forward on their national rule of law agendas is encouraging and reason for concern at the same time.  It is encouraging as it demonstrates the importance which countries attach to this area of governance.

It is two years since the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law was set up. Its director, Sir Jeffrey Jowell, talks about its work to Frances Gibb.

A measurement revolution has taken place in the fields of governance, justice, and the rule of law. Not only have the quality and amount of available data exponentially increased in the past two decades, but more importantly, the knowledge about precisely how to effectively use these data to advance reform in the field has greatly improved. This paper offers a brief account of progress made and lessons learned during the past two decades in the rapidly growing field of rule of law measurement, and offers some suggestions about remaining shortcomings and the path forward.

"Morocco’s forceful attempt to annex Western Sahara constitutes one of the most egregious violations of the international order codified in the wake of World War Two. The United Nations was founded to prevent the aggressive expansion of territory by force. Yet in Western Sahara, the Security Council has turned a blind eye to Morocco’s blatant contravention of the UN Charter.”

Saudi women are taking charge in promoting religious, political, social, economic and educational change in their economically, religiously and strategically influential country.  As they become more educated and informed of regional and global developments and trends, many Saudi women are becoming increasingly disenchanted with their social conditions and impatient with their government’s policies against them.

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.