National Security Strategy Implementation and Rule of Law Roundtable
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Access to justice is identified as a core element of rule of law, alongside clear and consistent rules and principles for the application of laws that uphold fundamental rights and freedoms, and the law’s application to all through functional systems of checks and balances. Knowing how different formal and informal aspects of the domestic justice system work, what their pros and cons are, and how to engage the various mechanisms one can choose from are significant contributors in and of themselves to citizen security. In this webinar, panelists will clearly articulate and offer examples from multiple countries that illustrate the ways that expanding citizens’ access to justice (through domestic courts and alternative dispute resolution) can mitigate drivers of insecurity and enhance the security sector’s fulfillment of its duties to the people.
This webinar will provide a forum for African experts to explore the strengths and weaknesses of security sector oversight by a range of formal institutions internal to the state that are designed and committed to bolstering democratic and civilian control of the security sector.
The Africa Center’s rule of law and security sector governance portfolio seeks to provide a trusted platform for senior-level African security and justice professionals, African parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, as well as alumni from civil society and academia, to share information, experiences, and practical ideas about these multiple aspects of rule of law, how they influence citizen security, and what successes and challenges security officials and oversight actors are likely to encounter in their work to enhance the rule of law in African security and defense sectors.
This webinar addresses the strategic interests that African security sector leaders have to make rule of law part of their plans, projects, and day-to-day work, both within security sector institutions and vis-à-vis the populations they serve. It discusses several core elements of rule of law to clarify what it is in principle and as a process. It examines how integrating rule of law into efforts to counter security threats—whether from violent extremism, conflict, and transnational organized crime, and across land, maritime, and cyber domains—can enhance the security sector’s effectiveness in the long run.
The integration of justice initiatives within conventional security efforts can mitigate conflict, improve societal resilience, and build a stronger culture supportive of the rule of law.
The rule of law is integral to the future stability of South Sudan. While the rule of law will be shaped by the broader political context in South Sudan, spreading the reach of informal courts into the country’s ungoverned spaces will be a vital component of any stability scenario.
President Peter Mutharika’s resistance to upholding Malawi’s Constitutional Court ruling on implementing electoral reforms poses a constitutional crisis over executive checks and balances.
This three-week, in-person seminar is designed to facilitate participants’ engagement in interdisciplinary peer learning about strategic and adaptive leadership and its implications for the effective management of African security challenges.
Insufficient operational coordination between local military officials and civilian administrators on stabilization functions is limiting the consolidation of gains in the fight against al Shabaab.
The regionalization of the Democratic Republic of the Congo crisis raises prospects for another multinational Congo War and the need for a robust African response.