Event
10 years of UNESCO's Judges' Initiative
10 years of training judicial actors
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Judges Initiative by UNESCO. Operating in over 160 countries, this innovative program offers comprehensive and practical training tools to members of the judiciary, in order to strengthen knowledge and capacities on regional and international standards on freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists. By providing judicial actors with a better understanding of their role in the protection of freedom of expression, UNESCO aims to foster the rule of law and support justice systems to become more aware on how to protect journalists against attacks and prosecute the crimes against them.
Looking back to the last 10 years, the Judges' Initiative has made significant progress and had real positive impact on an international scale.
- Over 35,000 judicial actors and civil society representatives trained from 160 countries since its inception in 2013.
- 11 Memorandum of Understanding established with regional human rights courts and judicial institutions;
- 10 freely accessible Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered to judicial actors;
- 12 resources and guidelines published for judicial actors and training institutes in multiple national and local languages;
- A global database of over 2,700 judicial case laws supported.
Unfortunately, despite this more than positive assessment, there is still a lot of work to be done. Nearly 100 journalists are still killed every year in the course of their work, and impunity rates for crimes committed against them remain alarmingly high.
The judiciary will undoubtedly continue to play a leading role in safeguarding freedom of expression. To that effect, the Judges Initiative will continue to support them and help protect journalists all around the world.
International Judicial Symposium on Freedom of Expression
UNESCO and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights of the University of Oxford will organize a one-day International Judicial Symposium on Freedom of Expression, on 29 September 2023. The Symposium will follow the celebration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information held on 28 September.
The Judicial Symposium is a closed event which will gather 15 high-level judges from the five regions of the world, as well as from all three regional human rights courts and sub-regional courts namely, from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the East African Court of Justice, and the ECOWAS Courts of Justice.
The Judicial Symposium will serve as a platform for discussion on key challenges related to freedom of expression, including the role of judiciary to balancing the right to freedom of expression and other human rights in the digital ecosystem, as well as the issue of the decriminalization of defamation and SLAPPs.
This event will also mark the 10th anniversary of UNESCO’s Judges’ Initiative, which was launched in 2013 and has since then trained over 35,000 judicial actors from around the world on international and regional standards on freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists.
Resources
Over 35,000 judicial actors around the world have already been trained on international and regional standards on freedom of expression and safety of journalists, through free online courses organized by UNESCO and partners. These courses are available in different languages, and some remain accessible.
Video explainer: How can the judiciary protect freedom of expression?
Interviews with judicial actors
Sharing good practices: stories from judges, prosecutors and legal actors
Interview with paraguayan Judge Janine Rios on good practices to help protect the safety of journalists.
Meet Dr. Sègnonna Horace Adjolohoun, a constitutional and human rights expert from Benin.
Interview with Ricardo Pérez del Pozo, head of Mexico’s Special Prosecutor Office.
