Importance of rule of law for sustainable development: Advancing Together

19 June 2016 | Joanne Beckett, Managing Director Australia, LexisNexis

We publish Advancing Together biannually to bring together views and insights from thought leaders on current affairs and developments that impact the advancement, and sometimes the erosion, of the rule of law in the Asia Pacific region.

I invite you to take a moment and read this edition that discusses reducing climate change in the region, pro bono work by our Hong Kong office, incarceration in Australia, and rebuilding a transparent legal system in Myanmar.

There have been a number of projects continuing across the Asia Pacific region to support transparency of the law and improve access to justice, which have involved LexisNexis staff, as well as partners, to ensure that our global vision to support and advance the rule of law is met.

We recently sponsored the launch of the inaugural Independent Lawyers Association of Myanmar (ILAM), as ILAM will play a key role in rebuilding and restoring the transparency of the legal system, and rule of law in Myanmar. The launch was held in the capital of Naypyidaw, and was attended by prominent human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

We continue to help create a sustainable structure for legal education in the country at Yangon Law School and Mandalay Law School by providing access to resources, including law books and training. In February, we facilitated the Philippine Group of Law Librarians (PGLL) to visit the Yangon Law School Library, in Myanmar, to assist with the rebuilding and cataloguing of the library after the devastating effects of Typhoon Nargis. The Vice President of PGLL, Milagros Santos-Ong, shares her experiences in this issue.

Last year, training was conducted on legislation consolidation and structure to support sustainable legislation maintenance in the Maldives. This project highlights the necessity of accessible legal remedy, which continues on into 2016 with a production of a complete hardcopy set of Maldivian legislation from 1968-2015 in the Maldivian national language Dhivehi, as well as developing an online legal research platform, to be launched later this year. The Australian team is continuing their work on consolidating the Laws of Fiji, which will be launching this year at Parliament House in Suva. The team has been working closely with the Fijian Attorney-General's Office in preparing and publishing the consolidated Laws of Fiji, which will also become available to the public via an online portal.

Our Hong Kong team is supporting the legal community through facilitating pro bono and volunteering opportunities, as well as providing free access to a new Lexis Practical Guidance module on Social Justice. This extends our complimentary rule of law Practical Guidance modules, where New Zealand provides free access to the Practical Guidance Slave Free module to help end the injustice of modern slavery and human trafficking. We look forward to continue sharing our rule of law projects and initiatives throughout the year, as it is the foundational principle that underpins all that we do at LexisNexis across the Asia Pacific region, as well as globally.


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