Rule of Law
STRATEGIC GOALS:
Throughout our activities, the Rule of Law division focuses on three strategic goals:
Increasing Democratic Legal Authority: Ensuring that legal authority extends to the entire territory of the country and applies to all citizens; ensuring that the justice system has a legitimate foundation in the democratic process; eliminating control by armed militias, criminal gangs, or warlords.
We support programming in constitutional and legal drafting, civilian and community policing, gang prevention, criminal justice and security sector reform. In post-conflict environments, we foster rebuilding the justice sector, increasing access to justice, enhancing oversight of the security sector, working with non-state justice actors and dealing with past abuses.
Guaranteeing Rights and the Democratic Process: Promoting independence of the judiciary; ensuring the constitutionality of government action; eliminating politically motivated prosecutions.
We support programming in human rights, judicial independence, access to justice, legal empowerment of the poor and the disadvantaged, civil society oversight of the justice system and building a culture of lawfulness.
Providing Justice as a Service: Providing more effective and efficient justice services, such as enforcing contracts and appealing administrative decisions.
We support strengthening of justice institutions, including the judiciary, ministries of justice, parliaments, prosecutors’ offices, public defenders, ombudsman’s offices, law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, law schools, bar associations and non-state justice institutions.
 Read more about our Strategic Focus
Read more about our Technical Leadership Initiatives
 USAID Support for Rule of Law Worldwide
USAID has rule of law programs in more than 50 countries. Two decades ago, Central America was plagued by civil conflict, human rights abuses and corrupt judicial systems beholden to political and economic elites. Laws were antiquated, legal training was inadequate and the poor lacked access to justice. In this environment, USAID launched a regional rule of law program focused on human rights and criminal justice.
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, USAID expanded its ROL programs, helping post-Communist states restructure judiciaries that had previously reinforced totalitarian control. In Ukraine, the 2004 Orange Revolution gained renewed status when the Supreme Court ruled that presidential elections were stolen. It ordered a new vote, paving the way for the victory of reformer Viktor Yushchenko. Several justices had participated in a USAIDsupported training program on election dispute resolution.
In the 1990s, USAID launched new programs in Africa, Asia and the Near East. USAID helped rebuild Rwanda’s shattered judiciary after the 1994 genocide. In both Bangladesh and the Philippines, USAID worked on innovative social justice programs. More recently, in Afghanistan and Iraq, USAID assisted with new constitutions, built courthouses, trained judges and lawyers and distributed basic laws.
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