ABA Planned or Proposed, Libya

by Agneta Johansson

Libya Program Implementation Recommendations

 

Women and the Law

  • Implement a comprehensive assessment of the status of women in Libya.
  • Build bar and local CSO capacity to support advancement of women in the legal profession and more generally through specialized training on leadership, advocacy, and law related transition issues.
  • Support institutional framework development for advancing women’s interests in the transition (e.g., women’s committee’s within bar associations or network of multiple organizations focused on issues pertinent to women and the law).
  • Build CSO capacity to provide law-related services to women.

Justice Sector

  • Support the judiciary and the Libyan judicial training institute with conducting continuing education programs that address near term needs, including judicial detention monitoring.  ABA ROLI can leverage its work with other judicial training institutes with whom it cooperates in the MENA region and its extensive Arabic language course modules to assist with this effort.
  • Train Libyan prosecutors on international detention procedure standards.
  • Assess access to justice in Libya and make reform recommendations.
  • Educate the public about the courts and the role of the judiciary.
  • Build CSO capacity to participate in judicial reform.
  • Assess detention procedures and make reform recommendations.
  • Support development of judicial performance standards (ABA ROLI has developed model benchmarks for judiciaries in the Middle East and North Africa).

Legal Profession

  • Support engagement by bar associations and civil society groups in June 2012 elections by building capacity in election law and procedure through training, development of an election law handbook with practical guidance on responding to law related elections issues, support bar and CSO in developing a supplemental monitoring and legal response initiative
  • Support bar associations in conducting continuing legal education on transition related issues (near term). Build bar capacity for regular CLE (mid-term).
  • Build the institutional capacity of regional bars.
  • Support development of bar association capacity to provide legal aid.
  • Build bar and CSO capacity to undertake rule of law related public legal education (elections, constitution, etc.) (ABA has extensive Arabic language public legal education materials that can be adapted for Libya).

Legal Education

  • Assess and support Libyan legal education upgrading, including:
    • Law faculty training;
    • Curriculum development;
    • Development of Practical skills opportunities for law students.

 

Civil Society

  • Build civil society capacity to:
    • Provide legal services to women;
    • Advocate for and monitor justice sector reforms;
    • Educate the public about the courts and the justice sector;
    • Educate the public about transitional issues, such as elections, constitutional development, human rights, and other issues.

 

ABA ROLI Capacity Statement

The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is a non-profit initiative that implements legal reform programs in roughly 45 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). ABA ROLI has nearly 700 professional staff working abroad and in its Washington, D.C. office. ABA ROLI’s host country partners include judges, lawyers, bar associations, law schools, court administrators, legislatures, ministries of justice, and a wide array of civil society organizations, including human rights groups. Program areas include access to justice and human rights, anti-corruption and public integrity, criminal law reform and anti-human trafficking, judicial reform, legal education reform and civic education, legal profession reform and women’s rights.

 

ABA ROLI is part of the American Bar Association (ABA). With approximately 400,000 members, the ABA is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. Part of the ABA’s primary mission is to promote the rule of law in the U.S and around the world.  ABA ROLI implements programs throughout the MENA region; it has offices in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and Qatar, and works with the legal profession in Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

 

Contact Angela Conway, ABA ROLI Middle East and North Africa Division Director at 202-662-1972, angela.conway@americanbar.org.  www.abarol.org