Asian Lawyers and Judges Meet to Discuss Ways to Combat Corruption in Justice Sector

In partnership with the Lawyers Council of Thailand (TLC), the Rule of Law Initiative co-hosted a conference entitled “Anti-Corruption: The Role of Lawyers, the Bar and the Bench in Preventing and Combating Corruption Within the Justice System,” on Feb. 19–20, 2007, at the U.N. Conference Centre in Bangkok. Read more »»

 

• Rule of Law Initiative Convenes Bar Leadership Roundtable in Bangkok
• ABA ROLI Co-hosts Seminar on Independence of the Judiciary
• ABA ROLI and IPB Publishes Annotation of the Code of Professional Responsibility

Access to Justice and Human Rights

Training human rights lawyers

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) works with local partners to design and implement practical skills-oriented trainings to enhance the capacity of human rights lawyers. The trainings are designed to boost participants’ organizational, problem solving and leadership skills. Additionally, ABA ROLI trains lawyers on utilizing administrative courts, an avenue by which victims of state abuse are able to seek compensation.

Building forensic capacity

ABA ROLI works to promote the use of forensic psychiatry to identify the harm done to victims of physical or psychological abuse and scientifically present evidence of harm in court. To build the forensics capacity of lawyers working on torture cases, ABA ROLI worked with its partners to develop a proxy medical evaluation tool following the Istanbul Protocol Standards—the first set of international guidelines for documenting torture and its consequences. This evaluation tool will enable lawyers to document evidence of torture in the absence of available impartial medical examiners. ABA ROLI hosted an interdisciplinary training for lawyers and medical professionals on how to use the medical evaluation tool, as well as roundtables for lawyers on introducing forensic evidence in court.

Auditing human rights abuses

ABA ROLI supported its local partners in conducting an audit of 100 human rights abuse cases, leading to a comprehensive, objective body of data. The audit provided substantive information on various human rights concerns that occur at every stage of a case, from arrest to detention to trial and appeal. ABA ROLI is helping identify ways in which the data can inform public advocacy.

Conducting public outreach

Together with in-country partners, ABA ROLI conducts community outreach in areas affected by systematic abuses. ABA ROLI organizes workshops to educate victims and their families about their rights to compensation and other forms of reparation. The workshops also inform participants about available legal mechanisms and lawyers. Additionally, ABA ROLI has trained students of the Prince of Songkla University Law School on international human rights and fostered mentoring relationships between the students and the lawyers taking part in the human rights trainings.

Since August 2009, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) has been working in Thailand to promote human rights and strengthen the provision of justice for victims of human rights violations. With support from the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, ABA ROLI is working with local partners to: identify procedural gaps in cases involving human rights abuses and improve the monitoring of ongoing cases; educate key stakeholders on the right to seek compensation for human rights abuses; build the capacity of lawyers to better protect their clients’ human rights and utilize forensic evidence; and raise awareness about human rights principles at the local and national levels.