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
Political
Engagement
The rule of law is essential for sustainable peace and resilient economies, as well as for the prevention or recurrence of conflict. To prevent or address injustice, inequalities or democratic deficits, UNDP works with multiple stakeholders to operate in a way that is consistent with the rule of law and creates opportunities for all individuals to exercise their rights and access justice.
Institution
Building
The importance of strong institutions is more evident than ever as countries and communities respond to disruption, whether because of public health restrictions, climate change or political upheaval. Limitations on public gatherings and travel have revealed the need for institutions that are resilient to disruption.
Community
Security
2021 was a pivotal year that saw various developments affecting peace and security around the world. Civic space continued to shrink and the social contract between states and citizens was increasingly challenged, particularly during and after the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing distressing consequences of climate change, states and communities are forced to manage more cross-border conflicts, triggered by the displacement of people seeking increasingly scarce resources.
Human Rights
Systems
The scope of human rights challenges is widening, from eroded public trust and shrinking civic space to ongoing inequality and human rights impacts in the socio-economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging risks in the digital sphere. National human rights institutions (NHRIs), along with other human rights defenders, are facing rising and sophisticated forms of reprisals for carrying out their work.
Access to
Justice
Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) of the 2030 Agenda highlights the importance of access to justice for all for the development of peaceful and inclusive societies. Meaningful access to justice can only be achieved when people know their rights, have the opportunities, agency and capacities to claim them, and have access to independent, inclusive and people-centred justice systems that will respond in a timely, fair and effective manner.
Transitional
Justice
Without justice, there can be no lasting peace. In post-conflict, crisis-affected and fragile contexts, truth-seeking initiatives and reconciliation efforts are essential to bring peace to affected communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down transitional processes as states prioritized their response to the health crisis and measures to support the economy.
Gender
Justice
In 2021, the continued erosion of democracy and the spread of authoritarian trends in politics in many parts of the world contributed to a backlash against women’s rights. The COVID-19 crisis has reversed some of the hard-won gender parity gains by exacerbating pre-existing inequalities and power imbalances. It has also caused a dramatic increase in sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). All these challenges have been particularly acute in conflict, fragile and crisis-affected settings.
Innovation
New ideas and new strategies are critical to building sustainable and effective development approaches that really meet people’s needs. Technologies and globalization raise new human rights concerns and threaten the rule of law. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to limit people’s access to basic services. UNDP connected expertise across the globe to learn and adapt. Creating a culture of curiosity and experimentation, these efforts ensured that local needs and expertise were combined with emerging models to bring strategic thinking to people-centred development goals.
Overview
In recent decades, the Arab States region has been plagued by armed conflict, political instability and humanitarian crises. In 2021, countries like Syria and Yemen continued to experience devastating conflict. Other countries in the region, such as Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Sudan, have seen growing fragilities, experienced shifts and uprisings, with justice at the heart of demands. As a consequence of such volatile environments, the region is not only the origin but also the host of many of the world's refugees. Syrian, Sudanese, Somali and Palestinian nationals represent some of the largest refugee communities around the world, while Jordan and Lebanon host the most refugees globally per capita.1
Though the region has seen some positive developments towards the 2030 Agenda, persistent inequalities, compromised human rights and limited access to basic services prevent the realization of its full potential. In an already fragile context and in the region that had also been severely affected by a drop in oil prices and job losses, the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing climate related threats have impacted on the regional economy, magnifying existing socio-economic vulnerabilities.
The current state of the region affords an opportunity to explore effective strategies to build peace and recover from the impact of recent conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, at least three Country Offices progressed with support to informal justice mechanisms, such as in Somalia, Syria and Yemen. UNDP also continued its formal justice sector support, including legal aid. In Lebanon, 2,722 people (including 1,648 women) benefited from legal aid services and awareness raising sessions delivered by the three legal aid helpdesks established in 2021.
Growing attention in UNDP’s programming was dedicated to the advantages of area-based and localized approaches. In Iraq, UNDP supported 11 local civil society organizations to implement projects to identify security issues and build community-police partnership to address them. This and other activities resulted in an over 10 percent increase in public trust in the police. In Libya and Somalia, two missions were undertaken in coordination with the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP).
Vulnerable groups, such as women and girls, had limited protection against the various repercussions of COVID-19 and the pandemic response. Women in the region continue to have limited access to basic services and their rights are often restricted in practice even when they exist on paper. Building on the Gender Justice and Equality Before the Law Initiative and with a view toward future engagement on gender justice broadly, UNDP’s Regional Hub initiated a research paper on women’s rights implementation with a focus on access to finance, as well as a behavioural insights piloting exercise on gender justice.
In 2021, through an initial assessment of the application of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the Arab States, UNDP reviewed the opportunities to foster this agenda and persisting challenges among private sector, government and civil society actors. The findings of the research, which will be published in a report in 2022, will serve as a starting point for conversations and engagement for the promotion of the UNGPs.
- 1 United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ”Refugee Data Finder”. Available at
https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=3HMho5