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.

Armenia

In Armenia, a new Patrol Police Service was established in Yerevan, the capital, in July 2021, following a comprehensive five-month training programme for the new recruits supported by UNDP. In November 2021, the training was conducted for the candidates from the other two regions, Lori and Shirak. UNDP provided expert and technical advice for a large-scale review of the police educational system to result in structural and functional changes. Both the trainings for the patrol police recruits and the curricula of educational institutions were tailored to promote and mainstream the people-centred approach to security.

To ensure that the reforms in the rule of law, human rights and justice domains are inclusive and people-centred, UNDP facilitated a series of consultations and provided technical assistance on key areas. First, consultations on the mandate of the Human Rights Defender’s Office were conducted with a focus on its capacities to review legislative provisions from a human rights perspective and to prepare submissions to the UN treaty bodies. Second, ahead of the constitutional review in Armenia due in 2022, UNDP consulted the Ministry of Justice on the applicable international practices in the field of constitutional reforms.

2021 saw the roll out and preparations for the effective application of the first e-platform for psychological testing, developed with UNDP’s support to accompany the judicial recruitment process, as part of the digitalization process. The Supreme Judicial Council gained capacity to conduct psychometric assessments of candidates and ensure merit-based recruitment to underpin judicial integrity. The first 48 candidates underwent the psychological e-testing.

A series of initiatives were implemented to raise public awareness on the impact of corruption and the importance of its prevention. UNDP prepared a public service announcement (PSA) for a nation-wide broadcast to start in 2022, with follow-up surveys to evaluate the short and mid-term effects of this public campaign. In addition, UNDP developed an online platform to serve as a coordination, reporting, monitoring and evaluation tool for the Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2023. UNDP organized trainings for 52 civil servants and integrity officers (51 women, one man) from 52 state agencies based on the UNDP-developed anti-corruption training modules.

Key Results: Armenia

700 new patrol police officers improved their knowledge on human rights and rule of law disciplines, and the new Patrol Service was launched in Yerevan in July 2021.

Five groups of integrity officers from 52 state agencies (52 people in total; 51 women and one man) benefited from UNDP-developed anti-corruption training courses.

51 candidates for judges (13 women, 38 men) went through the UNDP-developed psychological e-testing system that underpins judicial integrity.