Stories

At any given time in the world, 11.5 million people spend their days behind bars, often pending trial and in overcrowded cells. Prisons operating above their occupancy limits are difficult to manage. In many countries, this translates into corrections systems where international human rights standards and respect for the rule of law are rarely implemented.

By Ilaria Bottigliero, Rea Abada Chiongson, Marina Elefante, Nupur Prakash and Isabel Micaela Santagostino Recavarren

Violence against women has long been recognized as a global epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly escalated threats to women’s safety, security and access to justice.

People have watched the novel coronavirus and its disease COVID-19 spread across countries and continents, and many governments have taken difficult decisions to impose restrictive emergency measures aimed at saving lives, protecting national health care systems, and halting the spread of the virus.

Sara Sotelo from Peru, Alejandro Barrientos and Claudio Iglesias Darriba, from Argentina, and Carolina Olarte Bacares from Colombia all have one thing in common – they are all IDLO Alumni. Sara, Alejandro and Claudio first met at IDLO ten years ago when they attended a two-week training on Intellectual Property Law. They remain in touch today.

This blog post is co-authored by Françoise Trine, Senior Food Security Officer, Secretariat of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and Dr. Ilaria Bottigliero, Director, Policy, Research and Learning, International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

In 1998, while working as a Court Attorney in the Court of Appeals of the Philippines, Rowena Nieves A. Tan, had the opportunity to come to Rome to attend the “Development Lawyers Course”, a flagship 12-week course organized by IDLO  to provide practical training on a range of basic lawyering skills, as well as more specialized legal topics.

The effects of the social and economic fallout from the current COVID-19 crisis will be felt long after the pandemic itself has ended. In some countries, however, there are already encouraging signs of government efforts to mitigate some of the negative impact.

IDLO has actively supported a wide range of e-justice initiatives in the Kyrgyz Republic to improve the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the judiciary through digital technologies.