Challenges

Freedom of expression and access to information are fundamental freedoms as well as enablers ensuring the rule of law, and human rights more broadly. However, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) observatory of killed journalists, over 1,200 journalists were killed between 2006 and 2021, with close to nine out of 10 of these cases remaining judicially unresolved. In this context, and as recalled in the 2013 UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/163, it is especially important to raise the awareness and capacities of the judiciary to enhance freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

As a result, consultative meetings were launched by Brazil with all the African Countries with Portuguese as an Official Language (PALOPs) (Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and, Equatorial Guinea) to receive feedback from their national judicial training schools. These consultations highlighted that issues related to freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists were not a sustained integral part of the pre-service and in-service training for judges.

Toward a Solution

The UNESCO Judges’ Initiative aims to foster freedom of expression, public access to information and the safety of journalists by reinforcing the capacities and knowledge of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other actors of judicial systems on international and regional standards, taking advantage of South-South cooperation strategies. This initiative between UNESCO and the Brazilian National School of Judges (ENFAM) is part of the broader global UNESCO Judges’ Initiative, which has already trained over 24,000 judicial actors in over 150 countries since 2013. It aims to apply the lessons learned from the overall Judges’ Initiative to develop triangular cooperation between the PALOPs and different judicial human rights systems. At the heart of this initiative is the goal of enhancing the international human rights legal framework and contributing to the achievement of Agenda 2030 and SDG 16, (Peace, justice and strong institutions), as well as Goal 11 of the African Union Agenda 2063, The Africa We Want (Democratic values, practices, universal principles of human rights, justice and the rule of law entrenched).

UNESCO and ENFAM jointly organized a regional training-of-trainers for judicial actors from PALOPS, in Brasilia, Brazil, in May 2022. During the course, participants had the opportunity to discuss the importance of protecting freedom of expression, including in the digital ecosystem, and exchanged on the fundamental role that judges and magistrates play in contributing to building a fairer world by applying international human rights standards in their decisions.

Following this regional training, UNESCO, in partnership with the Legal and Judiciary Training Centre of Mozambique and ENFAM, organized a national training for judicial actors6 in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2022, which gathered and reinforced the knowledge and skills of 30 judges and prosecutors – including two magistrates who had participated in the training in Brasilia. Along with these initiatives, UNESCO also signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with regional human rights courts and judicial institutions, including with the Ibero-American Judicial Summit (November 2016); the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (August 2018); the ECOWAS Court of Justice (May 2019); the Inter American Court on Human Rights (October 2019); and the East African Court of Justice (December 2021). The enhanced dialogue with these courts and institutions has reinforced the outreach for UNESCO’s specialized training of judicial officials in the concerned regions and has promoted exchange of good practices.

As a result, the crystallisation of partnerships with judicial institutions, including judicial schools, associations of judges and regional human rights courts, is not only a fundamental reason for the sustainability and replicability of the project, but also an outcome in itself. The initiative aims to keep creating innovative cross-border networks of judicial actors, fostering a sense of community and collegial support for various actors in justice systems who continue to exchange on specific national, regional, and thematic issues beyond the scope of the UNESCO course. This network of judicial actors can then act as the key driver of enhanced awareness of international jurisprudence and human rights standards on freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists, making the project sustainable and replicable in other PALOP countries. This approach has further enabled UNESCO to advance South-South and Triangular cooperation, through constant interaction with a variety of actors within the judicial sphere, such as regional courts, national schools of judges, prosecutors and associations of attorney generals, particularly in the Latin American and African regions.