Rule of Law Stabilization – Formal Component Monthly Report January 1 – January 31, 2014

The project enhances the rule of law system in Afghanistan by strengthening the capacity of the judiciary and court administrators. Component 1: Capacity Building of the Judiciary focuses on ensuring fair, accountable, and transparent dispute resolution in the formal court system. Task 1, Continuing Support to the Judicial Stage Program, involves providing support to the Judicial Education Department (JED) to improve the quality of judicial education. In January, RLS-Formal advisors met with the Director of the Supreme Court's Judicial Training Department, Judge Akbari, to discuss sustainability and capacity-building of the JED. The donors, including USAID, the French Embassy, International Development Law Organization (IDLO), and RLS-Formal, met to discuss and coordinate their support for the JED in the next few years. On January 22nd, the donors met with Judge Akbari and key members of his staff to hear his presentation on the status of the JED and his plan to improve judicial training and develop the technical capacity of his department. The donors shared their thoughts and concerns on the SC's ability to sustain and expand reforms needed to enhance the quality of judicial education with less dependence on donor support in the next few years. Judge Akbari was non-committal in response to the donors' request for information on the JED, including the department's organizational chart, terms of reference for the staff, and the SC budget currently in place to support the department. Component 2: Capacity Building of Court Administrators focuses on improving the efficiency of compiling, analyzing, and reporting data from courts throughout Afghanistan. In January, the project completed delivery of a two-week training program to Supreme Court staff on the new statistics database. RLS-Formal also prepared a report on the cumulative results from two Q10 Court User Surveys in which 1,549 court users participated at 42 courthouses in 17 provinces. The project also supports Component 3: Capacity Building of Faculties of Law and Sharia, which involves continuing implementation of core curriculum for Law and Sharia faculties, providing practical training for law students and instructors, and supporting hands-on training for law students. In January, the annual Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition, supported by RLS-Formal, was held in Kabul with the winning team from Herat University being selected to represent Afghanistan in the international rounds to be held in Washington, DC this coming April. Component 4: Public Legal Outreach and Awareness through Strategic Communications involves providing equipment and technical assistance to develop public legal outreach capacity, capacity building of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice to conduct effective print campaigns, and capacity building of the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice to produce radio and television programs. In January, the Ministry of Justice, with RLS-Formal support, broadcast a short television program on the law prohibiting forced marriage and information about the rights of women who "run away from home". The project also helped the Ministry of Justice's Public Legal Outreach department develop concepts for a new legal outreach campaign to be broadcast through social media sites such as Facebook and You Tube. RLS-Formal also supports gender justice initiatives, including developing materials for trainings on gender and on how to effectively perform administration functions as judges and as leaders of the Afghan Women Judges Association. The project assisted in drafting public information brochures on forced marriage and the rights of women who "run away from home".