South Asia Rule of Law Initiative (SAROL)
Like its sister initiative, the Middle
East Rule of Law (MEROL) project, the South Asia Rule of Law
project began with the idea of creating an effective, cost-efficient
program that unites countries of similar cultural and geographic
backgrounds to discuss ideas and trends in legal justice reform.
The goal of the SAROL initiative is to facilitate a dialogue on
human rights, intellectual property enforcement, and civil and
criminal justice reform between countries including Bangladesh,
Pakistan, India, and Malaysia.
The first phase of the project took place in May 2003, when delegates
from Pakistan and Bangladesh met with California judges, lawyers,
and other legal experts in San Francisco. Through their meetings
with the various legal experts and a debriefing session, the group
was able to initiate a genuine dialogue about regional issues
in legal reform.
The next phase of the project consists of working visits to Malaysia,
Bangladesh and India by ISDLS Executive Director Stephen Mayo
in the fall of 2003. In each country, Mr. Mayo will meet with
various legal authorities and develop topics for a conference
to be held at a future date. ISDLS hopes to include legal experts
from Nepal and Sri Lanka in this conference as well.
Future phases continue the goal of increasing the ability of
the leading actors of the legal communities to create greater
efficiency, accessibility, effectiveness, fairness, transparency,
and accountability in the administration of civil/commercial and
criminal justice. Emphasis is placed on forming working partnerships
and a lasting capacity for cross-national collaboration in reform.
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