In the run up to the launch of the Global Judicial Integrity Network in 2018, UNODC this week held its preparatory meeting for Europe, bringing together a diverse group of justice officials and associations from over 20 countries from across the region.
Following similar activities held in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016, and ahead of meetings for Africa planned for later this year, the two-day discussion offered a forum to exchange good practices and challenges in judicial integrity, as well as expectations of the Network once it goes live.
It is the right time to guarantee further steps to improve the transparency of the court systems along with the implementation of measures to support and enhance the integrity of judges in order to reduce the risk of corrupt behaviour by judicial officers in the future. In this perspective, we consider the Global Judicial Integrity Network an encouraging instrument.
Building on the work of the United Nations and others to help at-risk youth in marginalized communities avoid engaging in drugs, crime and violence, UNODC has launched a brand new Line Up Live Up Trainer Manual. Designed to assist coaches, trainers, youth workers and others looking to use sport as a vehicle to help 13 to 18 year olds cope with challenges in everyday life, the Trainer Manual has been designed for use in low resource settings across the globe. The Trainer Manual specifically draws on sport as a positive influence for youth to develop their personal and social skills and aims to increase knowledge about the risks associated with crime, violence and drug use.
This past week, UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative held its first ever hackathon (or coding challenge) in South Africa. The event - #Hack4Justice - saw some 34 secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 18 gather in Johannesburg, South Africa to battle it out at the keyboard and show off their ideas and talent in developing educational games focussing on justice and rule of law issues. The hackathon feeds into the development of a series of interactive tools to help students learn about these issues as part of the organization's Doha Declaration Global Programme.
This month the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration entered its next phase following receipt of the second instalment of funding from the State of Qatar. The funds - $13.3 million - are part of a four-year, $49.1 million contribution to UNODC's Global Programme which was launched following the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice held in Qatar in 2015. Since the inception of the Global Programme, there have been a number of considerable results. Some 2,000 stakeholders from across more than 110 countries have benefitted from international and regional capacity building activities, including conferences, workshops and trainings.
