Legal Reform
To reform laws is to reform societies. At IDLO, this is something that we have had thirty years to learn. And there are no more important laws than fundamental laws – national Constitutions. One of greatest, the Constitution of the United States of America, has served that nation well for nearly a quarter of a millennium. Constitutions encapsulate a vision. In countries struggling to overcome trauma, as is the case of Kenya; struggling to be reborn, as in Somalia; or struggling to be born at all, as in South Sudan, Constitutions respond to a collective need for unity and renewal.
But Constitutions are also highly technical documents. They set the parameters for law and justice in a given jurisdiction. For this reason, they require legal resources and expertise unavailable in many developing nations. By providing those resources and expertise, IDLO is proud to have assisted several countries through complex constitutional processes.
Laws for e-governance: unifying public registers in Ukraine
A resolution adopted by the Ukrainian government in May 2018, drafted with support from IDLO, is paving the way for a national legal framework that will underpin an innovative e-governance system connecting all electronic public registers across the country.
High-level Group on Justice for Women
Inaugural Meeting: High-level Group on Justice for Women
Update (as of July 27, 2018): The Inaugural Meeting Report is now available below
IDLO works to promote gender equality and justice
Supporting the rule of law in Mexico
Español | English: Mexico has made significant efforts to modernize its criminal justice system, specifically regarding public security and strengthening the rule of law. The current justice system, which entered into force in 2016, is based on the presumption of innocence and includes police professionalization as a public policy.
Indonesia-Netherlands Rule of Law and Security Update
The Netherlands and Indonesia have a longstanding relationship in the fields of rule of law and security cooperation. The two countries' legal systems share a common heritage in substantive law and legal structure, and remain important partners today.
IDLO Director-General to visit Ukraine: Media Advisory
Kyiv, October 24, 2017 - The Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), Irene Khan, will visit Ukraine from October 25 to 27, 2017 to meet representatives of the Government of Ukraine and other key stakeholders in the rule of law sector to discuss IDLO’s work and explore areas of potential future collaboration.
E-evidence in Indonesia: A new frontier in anti-corruption
Electronic evidence is progressively becoming a key component in corruption cases in Indonesia. Gradually, e-mails, recordings, text messages and social media posts are presented as evidence that can make or break a case.
Transparent data helps Afghans prosecute violence against women
Just one year after IDLO first helped the Afghanistan Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) develop and launch a specialized database to track violence against women cases, the system has transformed the AGO’s ability to generate accurate statistics and pro
Preparing the judiciary as an essential pillar of democracy - lessons through time
The public backlash against the judiciary following the Presidential Petition decision in the Supreme Court in 2013 provides a lesson on the immense difficulties of convincing a cynical public that judicial decisions are based on legal reasoning and not political influence.
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Key Initiatives
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The continued challenges Mongolia faces in implementing its anti-corruption reforms demonstrate a clear need for improvement in the immediate detection of corruption cases and stronger international cooperation and mutual legal assistance in corruption-related criminal matters. -
Corruption is a complex social, political and economic problem which undermines democracy, human rights and governance by weakening state institutions, eroding public confidence and hindering the pathway towards sustainable development. The 2019 Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer found that 80% of citizens of the Bahamas considered corruption in government to be an important issue. -
In recent years, Jordan has taken steps and demonstrated political will to reform the justice sector and promote mediation and alternative dispute resolution as means not only to reduce court congestion and shorten the litigation process, but also to guarantee transparent and fair trials. Despite the use of mediation for several years, interest in mediation faded, and it is no longer perceived as a reliable mechanism for dispute resolution. There is therefore a strong need to re-establish mediation as an effective dispute resolution mechanism in the country. -
Indonesia's Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) has identified differences between its methods for measuring the budget it needs to handle cases and the methods used by other bodies, including the Ministry of Finance, the National Planning and Development Agency and the State Audit Board. If the AGO's initial budget needs are not assessed correctly, this could potentially lead to a misjudgment of its budget allocation, its burn rate and expenditure, and its budget performance. -
Until recently, court processes in the Kyrgyz Republic have not been automated. Manual or paper systems still are required and are the norm although automating all processes has started very actively. According the country’s National Target Program for Development of the Judiciary, automated information systems need to be expanded and rolled out to the whole judicial system, not only within all first instance courts, but also second and third instance courts.
