News
ADB Hosts Asia-Pacific Conference on Gender-Responsive Judicial Systems
ADB hosts the Asia-Pacific Conference on the Promotion of Gender-Responsive Judicial Systems, a hybrid event that took place in Suva, Fiji. Over 200 key judiciary actors and specialists from over 40 countries convened to strengthen judicial responses to violence against women and girls.
ADB Partners with the Philippine Judicial Academy
The ADB Law and Policy Reform Program team met with the newly appointed Chancellor Rosmari Carandang and her team from the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and representatives from the Supreme Court to discuss capacity building of special commercial court judges and inclusion of courses on environment and climate change into the judicial education program.
ADB Partners with Timor-Leste Office of the Prosecutor General for More Effective Handling of Gender-Based Violence Cases
On 25 January 2022, His Excellency Alfonso Lopez, the Prosecutor General of Timor Leste and the ADB Office of the General Counsel's Law and Policy Reform Program team discussed their cooperation on the development of customized training modules for prosecutors; development of standard operating procedures to assist in evidence gathering for gender-based violence (GBV) cases; prosecution strategies that understand, support and protect GBV survivors and thoughtfully interact with vulnerable witnesses; expansion of knowledge about the causes and consequences of GBV; and advocacy tools to sensitively reach out to intended stakeholders and audiences while building greater confidence in the formal justice system.
ASEAN Chief Justices Recognize ADB as a Key Development Partner
At the 9th Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ) meeting on 7 October 2021, the ASEAN Chief Justices adopted a declaration calling on its Working Group on Judicial Education and Training to collaborate with ADB and submitted an implementation plan for CACJ's approval.
ADB Discussed Capacity Building on Gender-Based Violence Cases with Timor-Leste Legal and Judicial Training Center
Judge Antonino Gonçalves, Director of the Legal and Judicial Training Center, met with the ADB Team to discuss customized training modules for judges and prosecutors.
Promoting Gender-Responsive Judicial Systems in Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste Minster of Justice H.E. Dr. Manuel Cãrceres da Costa met with the ADB Team to discuss more effective and efficient handling and adjudication of violence against women and girls cases.
Palau Enacts International Commercial Arbitration Act
Following accession to the New York Convention on 31 March 2020, Palau enacted the implementing law on 29 April 2020, supported by the ADB Office of the General Counsel's Law and Policy Reform Program. The new law establishes a comprehensive and modern legal framework for international arbitration, which has become the preferred way to resolve cross-border commercial disputes.
ADB Supports the Establishment of Model Gender-Based Violence Court in Lahore
“Every person has the right to live, and the right to live means right to live with dignity. A person should live as a “person” and no less. Human dignity hovers over our laws like a guardian angel; it underlies every norm of a just legal system and provides an ultimate justification for every legal rule, […] making human worth and humanness of a person a far more fundamental right than the others, a right that is absolutely non-negotiable.”