XV Edition GIZ Law Journal

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

work of the Court in its past 40 years of existence. In this context, the DIRAJus project has contributed to the signing of a cooperation agreement between the three regional human rights courts, which is still being implemented today. Inti Schubert points out in his update to the contribution “Zugang zur Justiz in Lateinamerika: ein Diskussionsbeitrag” from 2014, that the application of the conventionality control -developed by the Inter-American Court to verify the conformity of national law with the Inter-American Human Rights Treaties and initially rejected by the judiciary at national level - nowadays is accepted to a large extent. This can be attributed to the training of more than 1000 lawyers as Marcia Campos proves in her update to the article “ Themis Methodology brings together academics and lawyers of the Latin-American region” from 2019. Last but not least, Inti Schubert’s update to his article about “ Digitaler Wandel und Menschenrechte - Eine Orientierung” from 2017 brings us back to the feature’s underpinning fundamental notion that disadvantaged groups with difficulties to access the internet should always be taken into account when designing projects in the digitization era. That leads us to the next important topic: Access to Justice for groups in vulnerable situations which was and is a recurring theme of all editions. Access to Justice refers to the institutional and social conditions under which rights can be materialized. Because formal equality of rights could lose much of its meaning due to the disparity of wealth and power, Access to Justice and courts is crucial for groups in vulnerable situations and provides a unique tool to counter the discrimination (and oftentimes disrespect, lack of dignity, or even violence) they are facing. First, we would like to draw your attention to Arslan Sabyrbekov’s update on the article “ We have not forgotten you:’ GIZ supports first nationwide multi stakeholder workshop on prisoner rehabilitation in Bangladesh” from 2014 in which he highlights that the commitment to take extensive measures

System” . She goes one step further and allows for us to have a more general overview about different context and projects she has served in the sector Rule of Law and Human Rights. She concludes that the rise of projects supporting a more equal access to justice for all, and the enactment of Human Rights legislation highlights them as necessary preconditions for a sustainable change towards peace and justice altogether. In the update of his article “ Resilience of the African Human Rights System: Towards Enhanced Protection of Human and Peoples’ Rights” from 2022, Rizzan Nassuna points out that -due to the COVID-19 measures- democracy is under pressure in the African region but that due to the agile nature of the mandates of the African Union (AU) Human Rights Organs, the African Human Rights System has been able to register commendable progress towards the protection and promotion of human and peoples’ rights during the health crisis. In their update to the article “ Making a difference – the role of human rights organizations in Zimbabwe ” from 2019, Kathleen Lindner & Katharina Guhr take a look at the enforcement of human rights at the national level and paint a rather bleak picture of shrinking spaces three years later. Nonetheless, they see positive developments in legislation such as the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (2021) and the coming into force of the Cyber and Data Protection Act in December 2021 that contains progressive provisions that provide for the protection of personal data and privacy. Progress can also be seen in the Inter-American Human Rights System. Thus, Marcia Campos indicates in her update to “ 35 Years of Activity: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights - Some Facts and Figures ” from 2014 that a refresh of the booklet was published in 2018 in the context of the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the American Convention on Human Rights and the creation of Inter-American Court of Human Rights which contains a comprehensive overview over the

for rehabilitation of prisoners now constitutes one of the key elements of Bangladesh’s key national development strategy which is backed by significant financial resources. Since 77% of Bangladesh’s prisons are with nearly 30% of the prisoners being incarcerated on minor drug charges, the program has been working with the Government of Bangladesh to help distinguish where in fact social and early intervention is called for instead of incarceration and has continued to carry out training to the increase the capacities of prison´s staff on basic drug treatment. A different challenge, as a result from a multi-ethnic perspective, is described by Muhamet Brahini in his update of the article “After the integration of the judiciary in the North – What’s next?” from 2018. Radiating from Basic Court of Mitrovica competent for both the Serbian speaking population and community members of Kosovo, the update describes how the challenges in language training, establishing a personal and work relationship between the Serbian-speaking judges and their Kosovar counterparts, and the internal functioning of the court have been attended successfully. His catchy conclusion shall be repeated here: “ We have proven that cooperation can work successfully” . Ultimately, the contribution of Christiane Wolowiec-Musich on “Women in Customary and Informal Justice Systems” , shall not go unmentioned. As part of a new German feminist development policy, GIZ Sectoral Program Governance supports IDLO to conduct a research study on representation, participation, and empowerment of women in customary and informal

justice (CIJ) systems to brighten up its potential to reach the SDG 16.3, “Access to Justice” and SDG 5, “Gender Equality”. The study seeks to analyze the main factors which lead to an active participation of women in CIJ as well as the main impediments which hinder women’s participation. As you may have noted, this editorial is a bit longer than usual – and there is a reason for that. After 15 editions of GIZ Law Journal, the Team has concluded that the GIZ Law Journal should not be continued in its present form. We felt that the current feature was appropriate to end this form of sharing ideas, opinions, and information. We hope to have done justice to the right to freedom of expression and the exchange of information. However, the success of the Journal did not depend on us, but primarily on its contributors. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for the many contributions. We are especially grateful to those who have supported us regularly over time - for 8 years now. Based on the conclusion of Muhamet Brahini we would like to close the adventure of editing the GIZ Law Journal with the following words: We have proven that we can cooperate all together successfully. Now it only remains for us to repeat: We hope you enjoy reading- this time, the last edition of GIZ Law Journal! Yours sincerely, GIZ Law Journal Team

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