Development Cooperation on Human Rights

The following considerations are based on the experience of the AHRC and ALRC in recent years:

1. The absence of effective justice mechanisms is a core problem in promotion of human rights in many countries: by justice mechanisms we mean the police, prosecution system and judiciary;
2. The obligation to maintain an effective justice mechanism is based on Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
3. Development cooperation to improve justice mechanisms will go a long way to improve human rights;
4. Components of such cooperation must be as follows: (a) governments (b); civil society organizations, which can educate the public to seek necessary policy changes to improve the juridical framework and also develop civil capacity for human rights implementation;
5. Development cooperation should address the need for international understanding of how human rights can be advanced by developing and reforming justice systems.