Program

Since the IAWJ last gathered in person four years ago, much has changed. Members have innovated, broken glass ceilings, and thrived. In this panel we will hear from members about successes in their courts or their careers; listen to their reflections on how that success was achieved; and discuss the lessons that were learned for the future. We will also hear about innovations that arose from COVID-19 and other crises and those that led to long term change.

In 2022, IAWJ received a Women in Leadership in the Law grant from Co Impact/New Venture Futures to promote the leadership of women in the judiciary. In this panel, IAWJ staff and grant partners will describe the work it is doing as part of this initiative; how is it currently working with five IAWJ members associations; and discuss the future of the partnership. Initiative partners will also speak about their experiences with the project thus far.

The women judges of Afghanistan have long risked their lives to uphold the rule of law. With the return of the Taliban to power in the country and the fall of Kabul, their position became untenable; leaving Afghanistan was a life-saving necessity. In this panel you will hear from some of the Afghan women judges about their experiences and from the IAWJ Afghan Women Judges Committee about the efforts to rescue and support them.

How have the courts responded to the needs of persons for whom they were not designed? In this panel, we will hear about initiatives from around the world designed to ensure inclusive justice for such persons, including those from minority groups, unrepresented litigants, youth, parties and witnesses affected by disability, and litigants who do not speak the court language.

Many of those appearing before our courts as both witnesses and parties are suffering from trauma. This trauma can be individual, collective (such as from the long-term effects of colonization), or both. The most recent of our anti-human trafficking grants, in Kenya and Uganda, have focused on the impact of trauma on witness testimony and the strategies for making courts more accessible to traumatized parties and witnesses. This panel will share some of the lessons learned from those projects as well as hearing about how trauma has been accommodated in other contexts.

This panel will cover innovations in dealing with gender-based violence in the courts, including in both criminal and family law cases. Topics to be discussed include the institutional abuse of those in care and cyberviolence.

Human trafficking can take place in a single country, but often migration and human trafficking are interrelated. Migrants may become trafficking victims at the hands of those they pay to get them across a national border and often lack the protective networks that might shield them from trafficking. This panel will examine how judges have responded and should respond to the intersections of migration and human traffciking and to trafficking more generally.

In this session you will hear from our Executive Office staff about the IAWJ programs and other projects they are working on, honor the recipients of IAWJ awards and be introduced to your new IAWJ officers and regional directors. Our President, Justice Susan Glazebrook, will present her Presidential address.

Judicial diversity at all levels of the judiciary is critical for perceptions of the constitutional validity of the courts and to ensure judges understand the parties appearing before them. This session will examine the innovative ways judicial diversity is being encouraged around the world and suggestions for future action.

In this session we will hear about alternative sentencing models and other innovations in how criminal cases are dealt with, including solution focused judging, the role of specialist courts such as drug and homeless courts and the involvement of communities in rehabilitation.