Global Interest
In 100 countries worldwide, women are barred from doing certain work solely because they are women. Over 150 countries have laws that are discriminatory to women, and only 18 countries are free of such laws. In 32 countries, women cannot apply for passports in the same way as men.
Last year Legal Aid South Africa supported nearly 800,000 people who would otherwise have had no recourse to justice because they could not afford legal fees.
IDLO representatives are participating this week in the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, which is said to be the largest conference on any global health or development issue.
World leaders have committed to ending AIDS by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, but stigma and discrimination remain significant obstacles. In particular, police are critical, front-line determinants of risk for many people living with HIV (PLHIV) and members of other key affected populations (KAPs). The negative impact of adverse police behaviors and practices on HIV risk is well documented, and these risks undermine global efforts to end AIDS. Far less well documented, and less common, are attempts to ameliorate this impact by working to change police behaviors.
The rule of law has often been regarded as an abstract concept in development circles, a poor second cousin to the tangible targets set by the eight Millennium Development Goals. But that changed in January 2015, with the adoption by the African Union of Agenda 2063, which included the rule of law as one of its seven ‘Aspirations’ for Africa.
“Overcoming environmental destruction is an act of justice”, said Helene Molinier, IDLO’s Program Manager of Strategic Initiatives, at the opening of Connecting the Dots Across the SDGs: Lessons in Biodiversity Mainstreaming.
“There is no peace and security without democratic governance and development.
(Rome, Italy) June 9, 2016
Africa-wide collaboration on strengthening the rule of law will play a key role in realizing international development goals.
This was the consensus at the end of a two-day rule of law and development meeting convened by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) and the Government of Tanzania last week.
In 1996, Lesley Ann Foster set up a women’s support centre in South Africa, where incidents of violence against women and girls remain one of the highest in the world, despite human rights laws passed by the government.
The Africa conference on rule of law and development opened in Dar es Salaam yesterday with over 140 delegates attending, including two former Presidents of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa and Jayak Kikwete.
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