IBA Rule of Law Report as at April 10^th 2006

The Council of the International Bar Association passed a Resolution on the Rule of Law in Prague in 2005.

Since the Council meeting in Prague, the IBA office has written to the Head of State in every country in which the IBA has a Member Organisation asking them to endorse the Resolution.  Responses to date are shown below.  In brief, the IBA has written to 132 Countries.  As of 3 April, 19 Government offices have responded and 25 member organisations have given substantive support.  Some others acknowledged receipt.  The Governments who have expressed their support for the resolution are Austria, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malawi, the Philippines and Romania. 

In addition, The Times (London) published a substantive article by the IBA President, Francis Neate, on the Rule of Law.  This has been subsequently reproduced in the bar journals and websites of the Bucharest Bar Association, Ankara Bar Association, East Africa Law Society, the Law Society of Ireland and followed up extensively by the National Bar Association of Bangladesh.

A Rule of Law Symposium, organised in conjunction with the American Bar Association, will take place on September 16-17 2006 prior to the IBA Annual Conference.  All bar leaders will be invited to attend this important working meeting in which topics such as The Rule of Law and Economic Development, The Rule of Law and an Independent Judiciary, Public Education and the Rule of Law, The International Rule of Law, and The Role of the Legal Profession in establishing the Rule of Law will be addressed.