The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stress the importance of building ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’ worldwide (Goal 16). In particular, Goal 16 asks everyone, including but not limited to governments, non-state actors, civil societies, communities and individual citizens, to work together to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. The United Nations also emphasises that Goal 16 aligns with the broader human rights framework by promoting societies that respect and uphold individual rights, including equal access to justice, the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information; everyone as free and equal should be free of fear from all forms of violence and feel safe to pursue their lives regardless of their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation.
RIL fully supports the SDGs and stands with the value of the rule of law, access to justice, judicial independence and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms following international human rights law and standards. In light of the global resurgence of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, RIL sees the need and potential to work with civil society actors in developing a resilient culture for the liberal democratic rule of law values, as well as robust, independent institutions that guarantee equal access to justice and rights-respecting mechanisms against power abuses.
RIL’s rule of law resilience project will cultivate a rights-based rule of law culture in civil society under repressive environments through judicial and legislative monitoring, multimedia productions, intellectual roundtables, policy briefs, and evidence-based research reports.
If you want to learn more about our work, contact us at info.ril@proton.me.
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