Doha, 24 January 2019 - The Advisory Board of the Global Judicial Integrity Network met this week in Doha, Qatar, to evaluate the progress of this initiative since its launch last year at the UN Headquarters in Vienna. Comprising 10 senior members from judiciaries and judicial organizations from across the world, the Advisory Board was appointed to support the Network in its aim of helping Member States strengthen judicial integrity and prevent corruption in justice systems, in line with Article 11 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
The Advisory Board meeting was opened by HE Dr. Hassan bin Lahdan Alhassan Almohanadi, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judiciary Council of Qatar. "It is our honour to welcome representatives from across the globe here today, including some of the world's key legal minds," he stated. Meanwhile, expressing his appreciation to the State of Qatar for hosting this meeting, UNODC's Marco Teixeira, coordinator of the Doha Declaration Global Programme, flagged the importance of this group: "The Global Judicial Integrity Network is an important player in promoting a corruption-free and just world. It is our privilege to have such a high quality of expertise among those on the Advisory Board to help guide this work."
Over two days, the Advisory Board explored opportunities to further promote the Network in 2019, deliberated the organization of its work, and discussed concrete proposals to be presented at the next High-Level Conference which will be held in Doha from 18 to 19 November 2019.
In line with this final point, discussions were also held between UNODC and the Qatar Supreme Judiciary Council to discuss joint cooperation on the organization of this next high-level Network event. Building on achievements since its launch in April 2018, the conference is expected to bring together several hundred of the world's leading experts on judicial integrity to debate on key topics within this area. Among others, this will include aspects such as the use of social media by judges; the use of artificial intelligence tools by judiciaries; gender-related integrity issues; judicial training; effective implementation of codes of judicial conduct; and judicial transparency.
About
The Global Judicial Integrity Network is part of UNODC's Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, a four-year initiative supported and financed by the State of Qatar, aimed at promoting a culture of lawfulness and rule of law. Created after consultations with approximately 4,000 judges worldwide and seven regional preparatory meetings over a two-year period, the Network serves as a platform to assist all judiciaries uphold judicial integrity, to promote knowledge-building and peer learning, and to provide access to a large database of thousands of resources, good practices and other judicial documents for immediate reference. For more information, please visit: www.unodc.org/ji.
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Kevin Town
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Email: kevin.town [a] un.org