Promoting the rule of law

Heads of Governments and Law Ministers set mandates to strengthen rule of law, effective administration of justice and best practice in the Commonwealth.

A variety of technical assistance programmes help to strengthen justice institutions, develop laws, enhance the capacity of officials and achieve the independence of judiciaries.

Assistance is provided in many ways, including:

• Capacity building and provision of short and long term experts to aid in the development and drafting of national laws;
• Developing and promoting best practice on various thematic areas of law in the form of toolkits, guidelines, manuals and model laws;
• Supporting law reform, enhancing the capacity of law enforcement and other justice agencies on various thematic areas of justice such as national, transnational and international crimes. These include, but are not limited to, anti-corruption measures, cybercrime, money laundering and financing of terrorism, proceeds of crime and complementarity implementation of the Rome Statute;
• Promoting procedural and cross-cutting issues in the administration of justice, such as: witness protection, international cooperation on criminal matters, judicial independence, effective court administration, legislative drafting and law reforms;
• Placing and mentoring justice officials in equivalent justice agencies and brokering of twining programmes between national justice institutions in the Commonwealth.

How projects are managed

We coordinate the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI), a Commonwealth programme. Working with a range of committed national, regional and international partners, it provides coherent, comprehensive and sustainable assistance to member states, builds capacity to combat cybercrime and develop appropriate legal frameworks, and investigative, technical, enforcement and criminal justice capabilities.

Law development is the interface between the rule of law and sustainable development, with a special focus on the post-2015 Development Agenda of the United Nations. It adopts an integrated approach to rule of law programming, taking into account human rights, gender issues and sustainable development in the Commonwealth.