Judicial Misconduct and Public Confidence in the Rule of Law
August 8, 2019

Judicial Misconduct and Public Confidence in the Rule of Law

Judicial misconduct breaks down the very fibre of what is necessary for a functional judiciary- citizens who believe their judges are fair and impartial.  The judiciary cannot exist without the trust and confidence of the people. Judges must, therefore, be accountable to legal and ethical standards. In holding them accountable for their behaviour, judicial conduct review must be performed without invading the independence of judicial decision-making. This task can be daunting.

Mr. David J. Sachar, Executive Director of the Judicial Discipline and Disciplinary Commission in Arkansas, United States and Advisory Board Member of the National Center for State Courts, recently shared his views on judicial misconduct with UNODC, as part of the Organization's on-going work to exchange good practices in the investigation of misconduct.

Increase access to sport for youth from in marginalised communities in central Asia
July 30, 2019

Increase access to sport for youth from marginalised communities in Central Asia

The 'Line Up, Live Up' curriculum is currently piloted in 11 countries around the globe, including in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, building the capacity of sports coaches, teachers and community workers by enabling them to use sport as a tool for prevention of violence and crime among youth. 

One of the important elements of the initiative is to facilitate access to sports for youth, especially those from marginalised communities, as well as through the refurbishment of sports centres and schools. In Tajikistan, UNODC supported the renovation of a sports centre on taekwondo and archery in Dushanbe, in order to improve the condition of the facility and increase local youth's access to sports. While in Kyrgyzstan, two additional sports centres were renovated in Osh and Mailyy-Suu cities. 

Artificial Intelligence: A New Trojan Horse for Undue Influence on Judiciaries?
July 8, 2019

Artificial Intelligence: A New Trojan Horse for Undue Influence on Judiciaries?

For more than three decades, information and communications technology (ICT) advancements have burst into the operations of courts and prosecutors' offices promising transparency, efficiency and radical changes to working practices, such as paperless courts. Even if in most jurisdictions such promises have yet to be fulfilled, software programmes and algorithms are already executing growing chunks of judicial procedures.  The impacts such technologies have on the functioning of justice systems and the values endorsed by the  Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct are mostly positive.

With UNODC’s Global Programme, Palestinian youth Line Up, Live Up through sports
June 28, 2019

With UNODC's Global Programme, Palestinian youth Line Up, Live Up through sports

Children playing team sports together not only get the physical benefits of activity and the advantages of teamwork, but they can also learn valuable skills which they can apply in numerous other settings. Sports programmes have therefore increasingly given weight to these factors, using games and physical activities to teach young people how to resist social pressures to engage in delinquency, crime and drugs, how to cope with anxiety, and how to communicate effectively with peers, amongst other life skills. UNODC's own  Line Up, Live Up initiative, has been launched for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa region, in the State of Palestine, in cooperation with the Higher Council for Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Education.

Judicial Council of Buenos Aires to promote rule of law with Global Programme’s Ethics Training Tools
June 11, 2019

Judicial Council of Buenos Aires to promote rule of law with Global Programme's Ethics Training Tools

Confidence in the rule of law is a basic element of a culture of lawfulness, and the promotion of judicial independence, transparency and integrity is of utmost importance to  UNODC's Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, which works with judiciaries around the world to this end. The Programme's Senior Officer, Marco Teixeira, was invited last month to Argentina to discuss the objectives of the Doha Declaration, at the  Judicial Council of the City of Buenos Aires.  Mr. Teixeira presented the four components of the Programme, and in particular the work of the Judicial Integrity pillar and the activities of the Global Judicial Integrity Network : "The Global Judicial Integrity Network is a unique platform that provides peer to peer learning and connects judges worldwide".