Impact by Regions, Countries & Territories

UNDP’s Global Programme supports crisis-affected contexts across all regions to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. In this section, we present five regional overviews, detailing our priorities and approach depending on the context, as well as feature select country and territory results from 2021.

Five contexts from the list (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali and Yemen) illustrate the achievements of the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP). In peacekeeping missions and transition settings, UNDP’s Global Programme works through the GFP to deliver integrated assistance with our UN partners.

GFP Global Focal Point Highlights

Eswatini

In Eswatini, UNDP supported the Commission on Human Rights to document and investigate human rights violations that happened during the civil unrest in the country in 2021, and to monitor the human rights situation on an ongoing basis. The work of the Commission contributed to the empowerment of citizens, to the progress in ensuring accountability for reported police brutality and capacity building of law enforcement.

At the end of 2021, the situation in Eswatini remained tense and volatile, with sporadic incidences of violence. Despite the declared efforts to hold a national dialogue, uncertainty prevailed regarding its modality, leading entity and the timeline. In this complex context, with UNDP’s support, the Commission on Human Rights continued to monitor and to investigate reported cases of human rights violations that happened during the unrest, including those allegedly committed by law-enforcement. This ongoing activity fulfilled a preventive function and had a positive effect on the conduct of the police and other security officials. It has also increased the level of public trust in the Commission and brought confidence that there is a body where people can go to report violations and seek redress. This is evidenced by the 133 percent increase in the number of cases reported to the Commission since it scaled up its monitoring and investigative activities. At least seven cases were reported alleging police or military brutality; they are under investigation. To compare, previously only three cases alleging torture committed by the police had been reported to the Commission since 2015.

In October 2021, the Commission published a preliminary report with independently verified evidence, including the number of casualties and detentions. The report was disseminated among government officials, UN agencies, other partners and donors, and civil society. This facilitated a safe space to discuss the findings, not least those where the data was inconsistent with the official government statistics. One of the key recommendations of the report was to provide training for law enforcement to ensure their conduct is in line with international human rights standards. The Royal Eswatini Police has already requested UN support for such capacity building. A scoping mission planned for April 2022 will inform the preparations for the training on human rights-based policing due in May 2022.

In addition, UNDP worked with the Ministry of Justice and Commission on Human Rights to improve access to justice in the country. Two regional justice hubs in two of the country’s four regions were set up, with personnel recruited and equipped to provide legal services. The Commission received UNDP’s support to launch a digital platform for citizens to lodge complaints or share information on human rights violations. The platform will become fully operational in 2022. Overall, the interventions of the Ministry of justice and the Commission have a potential to facilitate access to information and to enable mechanisms for more inclusive national dialogue in Eswatini.

Key Results: Eswatini

A 133% increase in the number of cases of alleged policy brutality reported to the Commission on Human Rights.

UNDP supported the Commission on Human Rights to publish an independent report on the human rights situation in Eswatini, enabling a safe space to discuss violations with the authorities and advocate for accountability.

Two justice hubs were set up in the two busiest regions of the country and a digital mechanism to report violations was created by the Commission on human rights and development.