Impact by Regions, Countries & Territories

UNDP’s Global Programme supports crisis-affected contexts across all regions to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. In this section, we present five regional overviews, detailing our priorities and approach depending on the context, as well as feature select country and territory results from 2021.

Five contexts from the list (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali and Yemen) illustrate the achievements of the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP). In peacekeeping missions and transition settings, UNDP’s Global Programme works through the GFP to deliver integrated assistance with our UN partners.

GFP Global Focal Point Highlights

Africa

Arab States

Latin America & The Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Europe & Central Asia

Political
Engagement

The rule of law is essential for sustainable peace and resilient economies, as well as for the prevention or recurrence of conflict. To prevent or address injustice, inequalities or democratic deficits, UNDP works with multiple stakeholders to operate in a way that is consistent with the rule of law and creates opportunities for all individuals to exercise their rights and access justice.

Institution
Building

The importance of strong institutions is more evident than ever as countries and communities respond to disruption, whether because of public health restrictions, climate change or political upheaval. Limitations on public gatherings and travel have revealed the need for institutions that are resilient to disruption.

Community
Security

2021 was a pivotal year that saw various developments affecting peace and security around the world. Civic space continued to shrink and the social contract between states and citizens was increasingly challenged, particularly during and after the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing distressing consequences of climate change, states and communities are forced to manage more cross-border conflicts, triggered by the displacement of people seeking increasingly scarce resources.

Human Rights
Systems

The scope of human rights challenges is widening, from eroded public trust and shrinking civic space to ongoing inequality and human rights impacts in the socio-economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging risks in the digital sphere. National human rights institutions (NHRIs), along with other human rights defenders, are facing rising and sophisticated forms of reprisals for carrying out their work.

Access to
Justice

Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) of the 2030 Agenda highlights the importance of access to justice for all for the development of peaceful and inclusive societies. Meaningful access to justice can only be achieved when people know their rights, have the opportunities, agency and capacities to claim them, and have access to independent, inclusive and people-centred justice systems that will respond in a timely, fair and effective manner.

Transitional
Justice

Without justice, there can be no lasting peace. In post-conflict, crisis-affected and fragile contexts, truth-seeking initiatives and reconciliation efforts are essential to bring peace to affected communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down transitional processes as states prioritized their response to the health crisis and measures to support the economy.

Gender
Justice

In 2021, the continued erosion of democracy and the spread of authoritarian trends in politics in many parts of the world contributed to a backlash against women’s rights. The COVID-19 crisis has reversed some of the hard-won gender parity gains by exacerbating pre-existing inequalities and power imbalances. It has also caused a dramatic increase in sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). All these challenges have been particularly acute in conflict, fragile and crisis-affected settings.

Innovation

New ideas and new strategies are critical to building sustainable and effective development approaches that really meet people’s needs. Technologies and globalization raise new human rights concerns and threaten the rule of law. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to limit people’s access to basic services. UNDP connected expertise across the globe to learn and adapt. Creating a culture of curiosity and experimentation, these efforts ensured that local needs and expertise were combined with emerging models to bring strategic thinking to people-centred development goals.

achim portrait
Achim
Steiner
UNDP
Administrator
rules of law

Foreword

The rule of law, human rights, and justice are essential to maintaining peace and sustaining development. The combination of these elements is fundamental to the transformative ambition of the 2030 Agenda. In 2021 UNDP upheld the promise of that agenda through its Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights for Sustaining Peace and Fostering Development

Whether through increasing access to justice in Burkina Faso, Colombia and Yemen or our work on community security in Lebanon, Iraq and South Sudan, this past year has shown how integrated efforts to enhance protection, equality and security can bring positive changes to individuals and communities in some of the world’s most challenging settings.
At the same time, 2021 was a year of profound difficulties, with setbacks for many hard-won gains in justice and rule of law. Africa suffered the highest number of coups d’état within the past two decades. Devastating conflicts in Syria and Yemen, along with growing fragilities in other contexts, have further shaken the Arab States region. In Asia, the intensification of violence in Myanmar and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan have led to a deepening humanitarian crisis marked by rising poverty and extreme hunger.

Today, nearly 85 percent of the world’s population now live in a country where rule of law is declining1.

exclamation

With operations in more than 50 conflict and crisis-affected contexts around the globe in 2021, these projects represented indispensable efforts to uphold the social contract, increase public trust in institutions, and contribute accessible justice and inclusive legal protections for all.

Consistent with our vision for a future-smart UNDP, the Global Programme built on its successful digital justice initiatives. These innovative programs allowed courts to function and people to access remedy even during the lockdowns.

In 2021 the Global Programme was also on the front lines of environmental justice with projects focused on the intersections of rule of law, human rights, governance, nature, climate and energy. In collaboration with global partners UNDP pushed for the recognition of rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Through our Gender Justice Platform with UN Women, we provided support and services to women and girls in 14 conflict-affected countries.

Also in 2021, UNDP and the UN Human Rights Office, in close cooperation with the UN Development Coordination Office, launched a partnership to support UN systemwide strategic engagement with human rights mechanisms to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and over 16 countries have already benefited.

UNDP also undertook a consultative process to recalibrate the Global Programme. Now in its fourth phase (2022-2025), the programme is designed to enhance UNDP’s delivery of cross-cutting strategies on the country and policy level. In the years to come, we will expand our support in crisis settings, strengthen our commitment to knowledge management, and increase our collaboration with local stakeholders, subject matter experts, and UN partners.

Achim Steiner Signature
Achim Steiner
Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
1 World Justice Project 2021 Rule of Law Index.