WK 321 Building collaborative relationships with governments

Explore how to cultivate working relationships and partnerships with governments in order to provide support and convince them to implement reform – including standards of practice, government participation and legislative reform – to advance human rights.

Panelists

Featured Tactic: Berry Kralj, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), Rule of Law Unit, Poland Complementary Presentations:

• Necati Nursal, Judge, Ministry of Justice, Turkey
• Ana Carolina Evangelista, Network URB-AL 10, São Paulo Municipal Government, Brazil

Featured Tactic

Building collaborative relationships with governments for prison reforms Berry Kralj, OSCE/ODIHR, Rule of Law Unit, Poland

• View Berry Kralj’s PowerPoint presentation 2569 KB
• Read the the outline of his presentation

The Rule of Law Unit of the OSCE/ODHIR used a system of allies who worked together to bring about changes in the prison systems in Central Asia. The OSCE/ODIHR encouraged competition among neighboring countries in the area of prison reform. (Some reforms – such as moving the prison system from the jurisdiction of the ministry of interior to the ministry of justice – were already requirements for membership in the Council of Europe, which these countries hoped to join.) As Kazakhstan made progress, including making some legislative changes advocated by NGOs, other countries in the region began to take note. Additional allies were found among other prison systems in OSCE participating states, including Poland, Sweden and the USA. Trainers were brought in from these prisons and were respected by their counterparts. These trainers visited prisons or pre-trial detention centers and through this personal contact were able to point out specific violations of international law and failures of minimum practice standards. As a result of these efforts, most countries of the former Soviet Union have now moved their prisons to the jurisdiction of the ministry of justice and have taken many additional steps to raise standards of practice.

Complementary Presentation

Necati Nursal, Judge, Ministry of Justice, Turkey

• Read the outline of Necati Nersal’s presentation (Turkish)

The Ministry of Justice has collaborated with European countries to develop a highly successful program providing training and exchanges for judges, prosecutors and penitentiary officers that help them develop an understanding of and expertise in international human rights standards that they can then share with their colleagues. More than 9,000 people have been trained in the largest program of its kind in Turkey.

Complementary Presentations

Ana Carolina Evangelista, Network URB-AL 10, São Paulo Municipal Government, Brazil The municipal government of São Paulo in Brazil has worked with the European Commission to coordinate an innovative network to fight urban poverty called URB-AL 10, or the Fight Against Urban Poverty Project. Since its beginning in 2002, the network has grown to 307 members from 26 countries spanning Latin America and Europe. Of these members, 219 are local governments and 88 are nongovernmental organizations. The network shares experiences, research and courses for municipal employees. Each city may develop its own projects in which they work together with other cities and NGOs to plan and implement.