William C. Hubbard joins leaders from around the world to address the widening threats to the rule of law during the international conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, May 30-June 3.
Hundreds are in attendance for the 2022 World Justice Forum with the purpose of identifying the roots of current rule of law crises, effective approaches to address them, and actions that governments, civil society, and the private sector can take to reverse current backsliding.
Hubbard set the stage for the forum with a welcome speech, saying “The global pandemic has laid bare grave injustices and made clear the price we pay for neglecting the rule of law. Our goal this week is to dig into the long-standing structural inequalities and governance weaknesses that have deepened the health crisis and continue to hold us back.”
The forum’s intersecting themes are:
- Anticorruption & open government
- Access to justice
- Equal rights and nondiscrimination
Why it matters:
- Almost 85% of the world’s population now live in a country where rule of law is declining, according to the World Justice Project 2021 Rule of Law Index
- The index examines eight different rule of law aspects, including constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, regulatory enforcement, and civil and criminal justice
- More countries declined than improved for the fourth year in a row
- The United States is among those that have declined during that period
In good company:
More than 100 speakers join Hubbard at the forum, including:
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet
- European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová
- Kenyan Chief Justice Martha K. Koome
- Former ABA presidents William H. Neukom and James R. Silkenat
- Justice officials from Nigeria,Sierra Leone, and Uzbekistan, among others