Global Interest
The rule of law must be used as a tool to vindicate the rights of indigenous people and to ensure that development in the post-2015 era protects their lives, livelihoods, resources and environments, urged Judit Arenas, Deputy Permanent Observer of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) to the United Nations.
IDLO is tackling this challenge of FS with partners in the World Bank’s Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development. A consortium led by the Organization will develop an assessment tool to assist strengthen national legal frameworks to respond to this emerging challenge. The tool will be tested in Uganda in the course of 2015.
In 2014 IDLO signed agreements with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to build legal capacity to address public health challenges. The initial focus is on obesity, diabetes, healthy diets and physical activity. Also in 2014, IDLO, the WHO and the University of Sydney convened the first regional consultation on overweight, obesity, diabetes and law in the Western Pacific.
“Women’s participation is a matter of basic human rights and democratic principles. We cannot afford not to include women. This is not simply a question of what benefits women, but of what benefits the whole of society,” Ioana Liana Cazacu, Romanian Secretary of State for Gender Equality, told participants at a roundtable on women, business and the rule of law in New York .
"Our relationship with IDLO is a strategic one," said Pierfrancesco Sacco as he presented his credentials to IDLO Director-General Irene Khan, on March 17. Ambassador Sacco is Italy's new envoy to the United Nations agencies in Rome, whose mandate encompasses IDLO. He takes over from Gianni Ghisi, a long-standing friend and staunch supporter of the Organization.
Organized by IDLO to coincide with International Women's day, the roundtable -- 'Making Law and Justice Work for Women' -- brought together practitioners, policy makers and experts from both the developed and developing worlds.
On March 2, 2015 IDLO and Majority World opened a photography exhibition, "In Focus: Justice and the Post-2015 Agenda", at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. It features 35 images taken by photographers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Kenya.
"Peace and justice cannot exist without a full realization of women's rights," The Hague Deputy Mayor Ingrid K. van Engelshoven told fellow panelists at a roundtable in the city. There was an ever-present need for what she called a 'gender lens'.
During a private event in Davos, Switzerland on 22 January 2015, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson stressed that “the rule of law is crucial for sustainable development, human rights, peace and security”.
