Collaborative partnerships between the United Nations and academia play a huge role in tackling global challenges, and in promoting a culture of lawfulness. UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative has reached out to countless educators and academics in the last five years, lending its support as they strive to empower the next generation of leaders and policymakers.
Together, E4J and hundreds of specialists around the world have developed unique tools and resources to support this objective at various educational levels. In particular, E4J has created a unique set of university modules, available for free download online for everyone, introducing students to the core themes of crime prevention and criminal justice. With over 100 modules surpassing 5,000 pages, professors have the flexibility to integrate various modules into their curricula, even in disciplines that do not generally cover such issues.
Since its creation, UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative has catered to all levels of formal education, creating tools and resources to teach at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in a variety of ways. At the core of this teaching material is the promotion of a culture of lawfulness, with a focus on giving the next generation the information and the mindset to better understand and address problems that can undermine the rule of law, and consequently undermine peace in their communities.
Engaging youth begins with teaching them core values that can form the base for a solid moral and ethical compass, and that can drive them to engage in their communities and contribute to making them safer and better. At the primary level, E4J helps disseminate values such as acceptance, integrity, respect and fairness. At the secondary level, practical and interactive educational material helps form a basic understanding of factors around crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law, the core concepts of UNODC mandated areas.
UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative has engaged with youth in numerous ways over the past five years, with a variety of methods and tools developed specifically to teach the younger generation to think about rule of law issues. One of the most popular events regularly organized by UNODC and its partners have been the hackathons - or coding challenges - held in several countries around the world, giving students the opportunity to unleash their creativity while thinking about tackling crime.
Also in the realm of technology, E4J created the Justice Accelerators, a six-month programme designed to equip young aspiring techies with the skills to build technology-driven enterprises tackling crime prevention and rule of law issues. The premise of this programme is providing a chance to explore young people's untapped innovative potential, making them ponder real life problems and seek original ways to help face them through technology.
Since its establishment in 1955, the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has met every five years in different countries around the world. During each Crime Congress, Member States have joined forces to set national and international policies to improve cooperation in this field. The 13th UN Crime Congress, held in Doha in April 2015, took the Crime Congress to a new level. Following the adoption of the Doha Declaration, UNODC launched an ambitious Global Programme generously funded by the State of Qatar, dedicated solely to the promotion of rule of law. In the five years since its inception, the Global Programme has established its solid credentials as a driving force on rule of law matters in the international arena, reaching millions of people around the world and actively supporting Member States in their crime prevention efforts.
With the judiciary a necessary cornerstone of law and order, ensuring a common understanding of ethics and the role that the court plays in society as well as working towards fair and equitable representation in the legal system is crucial. With this in mind, UNODC this past week convened a fruitful high-level discussion to mark the Judiciary of Iraq bringing the Global Judicial Integrity Network past the landmark threshold of 60 training sites for the Judicial Ethics Training Tools, as well as celebrate the commitment of Iraq to their implementation. The discussion featured the Chief Justices of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Iraq, along with a number of national judges who collectively shared their thoughts and ideas on this area.
