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Professional Development
The Partnership for Human Rights

Previously known as the Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI) and now operating out of the East-West Center’s Professional Development Program, the collaboration between the East-West Center and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University (‘the Partnership’) develops capacities and partnerships related to international justice, human rights and the rule of law in the Asia-Pacific region, with a specific focus on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Partnership combines the Asia-Pacific regional expertise of the East-West Center and the expertise of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice on capacity building, policy oriented research and programming on areas such as the rule of law, human rights, legal education, and transitional justice. The two Centers work in close collaboration with regional and country-specific institutions to train professionals and assist governmental and nongovernmental institutions in implementing international standards and best practices and meeting their international and regional obligations in the justice, security, economic, and social sectors. 

Professor David Cohen, a leading expert in international humanitarian law and international criminal law, directs all activities of the Partnership. Cohen is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center and the WSD Handa Professor in Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University, where he is also the Director of the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

 

Current Projects

The Partnership has active projects in Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the wider ASEAN region.

Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Human Rights System

ASEAN regional integration provides new opportunities for enhancing the rule of law, good governance and human rights in the region. The Partnership has a collaboration with the Human Rights Resource Centre (HRRC) for ASEAN to support important regional human rights research and policy advocacy and has also worked with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the regional level since 2010.

  • ASEAN-related research and capacity development
    Together with leading human rights experts in the region, the Partnership has played a central role in the development of the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN (HRRC), a network which has its administrative base at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. The HRRC comprises 12 major universities in seven ASEAN Member States and provides research, education, and training support on the full range of human rights issues in ASEAN. The HRRC provides reports, studies, and training on a range of human rights issues in the region including, most recently, freedom of religion, the rule of law, business and human rights, migration, and gender based violence and discrimination. More information and all baseline studies are available at http://hrrca.org.
  • ASEAN Judiciaries Initiative
    The Initiative was launched with expert input from David Cohen in 2012, when representatives from all 10 ASEAN judiciaries met in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to discuss ASEAN integration. Delegations agreed to an action agenda of priority areas that need to be addressed including legal harmonization, enforcement of judgments, facilitating cross-border investment and transactions, and increasing transparency in the judicial process. The Initiative was brought under the framework of the new Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ), and enjoys the continuous collaboration of USAID and the Partnership. More recently, the Partnership has been assisting CACJ’s Working Group on Judicial Education and Training with developing a strategic plan and a work program as well as conducting a needs assessment.
Meeting of the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ)'s Working Group on Judicial Education and Training, Jakarta, 5-6 September 2019.
  • Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
    The Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights is an annual meeting that brings regional and international experts together with the three principal ASEAN human rights bodies and other officials. Identifying a theme of particular importance to ASEAN each year, the Summer Institute provides a forum for key stakeholders to interact and discuss timely and important human rights issues. In 2019, the Summer Institute focused on ASEAN’s journey over the past ten years since the ASEAN Charter came into force. More specifically, it considered ASEAN’s transformation into a ‘rules-based’ regional organization and explored issues relating to legal harmonization.
Speakers at the Summer Institute 2019 on "ASEAN: The State of Rules-based Development" (Source: HRRC)

Rights of Women & Children and Human Trafficking

The Partnership places an emphasis on considering the role of vulnerable populations in development efforts, including women and children.

  • Human trafficking in Southeast Asia
    Concern has grown steadily over the past several years about the issue of human trafficking in Southeast Asia. The entry into force in 2017 of the ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP) creates an opportunity to advance the implementation of effective anti-trafficking initiatives. Towards this end the Partnership has published a report, Inaccurate numbers, inadequate policies, on the challenges of assessing the scale of human trafficking and a second report, Getting to good human trafficking data, on best practices on data collection and analysis in ASEAN. These studies provide ASEAN policymakers with a roadmap towards a unified ASEAN data collection and analysis system as a foundational resource for combatting human trafficking in all its forms.
Launch of study on human trafficking data collection in ASEAN, Jakarta, 29 March 2018

Rule of Law and Justice Sector Capacity Development

The Partnership provides technical assistance, policy-oriented studies, and capacity development for governmental and non-governmental actors in the justice sector. It has long-standing partnerships with judiciaries and rule of law institutions in Asia.

  • Judicial capacity-building and human rights trainings in Indonesia
    Since 2003, the Partnership has been involved in a variety of judicial capacity-building projects in partnership with the Supreme Court of Indonesia and the Attorney General’s Office of Indonesia. More recently, the Partnership completed a study on the interpretation and application of the Indonesian blasphemy law. In collaboration with the Indonesia Institute for the Independent Judiciary (LeIP), the Partnership also designed training modules to enhance Indonesian judges’ understanding of Indonesian human rights law and Indonesia’s obligations under international human rights instruments that have been incorporated into Indonesian law. This was followed by a series of trainings in partnership with the Supreme Court’s Judicial Training Center, targeting more than 1,500 candidate judges and 100 judges. The human rights training initiative will be expanded to include the Attorney General’s Office, targeting prosecutors and candidate prosecutors. Additional trainings relating to environmental law are also being envisaged in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Indonesia.
Training of Trainers on human rights with Judicial Training Center of the Indonesian Supreme Court, 18-19 July 2019
  • Legal and human rights education in Cambodia
    Since 2013, the Partnership has been working with Cambodian universities, including Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Pannasastra University and the University of Cambodia, to improve the quality of human rights and legal education and to support long-term capacity building among Cambodian law lecturers. As part of this work, lecturers have received training and mentoring in fair trial rights and interactive teaching methodologies. In collaboration with the Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law at RULE, the Partnership has also been implementing the ‘Cambodian Women in the Law’ project which seeks to strengthen the participation of women as leaders and educators Cambodia’s legal sector. This project uses policy-oriented data collection and legal education as entry points for positive change.
Project workshop "Cambodian Women in the Law", Phnom Penh, 23 December 2019
  • Judicial capacity building and human rights training in the Philippines
    At the request and under the auspices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, since 2016, the Partnership has provided trainings on international criminal law for the Philippine judiciary. These trainings have included basic and advanced courses and are attended by judges at all levels as well as lawyers from relevant government ministries and institutions.

Anti-corruption