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29 April 2024 | Uncategorized

CT PHARE Capacity Building Activity – Human Rights-Based Decision-Making Model (DMM) – Francophone African countries in Abidjan, Cote d’Iviore

The IIJ team was in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for four days, to conduct the CT PHARE’s Capacity Building Activities on the Human Rights-Based Decision-Making Model (DMM), with the aim of cultivating ethical and effective counter-terrorism interventions and crisis management across Francophone African countries.

CT PHARE, alongside our ES Steven Hill met with the Ambassador of the EU Delegation in Ivory Coast Director General of AILCT and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (to be added) as well as other key stakeholders and external organisations to spearhead the programme. 

The objective of this initiative was to equip the twenty five participating law enforcement  practitioners from Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Guinea, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal, Tchad and Togo . with essential tools and insights to assist them in using the decision-making model effectively and taking the appropriate human rights compliant course of action in various counter-terrorism (CT) interventions. 

Experts from the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (CAERT) of the African Union, the International Academy for the Fight Against Terrorism (AILCT), the EUand The Danish Institute for Human Rights were involved throughout the course of this capacity building activity. 

Mr. Paul Madden, Project Lead of CT PHARE had the pleasure of opening the Capacity Building Activity, together with the Ambassador at the EU Delegation in Ivory Coast, Ms. Francesca Di Mauro, and Mr. Evariste Koffi Yapi, General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Diaspora of the Republic of Ivory Coast. 

The closing ceremony, organised at the AILCT premises, was chaired by the IIJ Executive Secretary, Mr. Steven Hill, and the General Director of AILCT, Mr.  Joseph Allah Kouamé. The collaborative efforts between the experts, participants and the CT PHARE team will culminate in the development of an IIJ Toolkit on the Human Rights-Based DMM in CT.

12 February 2024 | Uncategorized

Conversation with Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer

On the occasion of our 10th Anniversary, our Executive Secretary Steven Hill was honoured to have a conversation with Justice Stephen Breyer.


Stephen Breyer served 28 years as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he was widely regarded as a brilliant, careful, and analytical judge, a consensus builder, a guardian of individual rights, and a fierce protector of a nonpartisan, nonpoliticized judiciary. During his tenure, he was described as the court’s resident intellectual, an optimist with an abiding commitment to social justice and the fundamental role of the judiciary in pursuing it.


He was also one of the court’s most internationally focused judges and not only travelled widely and exchanged frequently with colleagues on other courts around the world, but in 2015 published a book on the importance of understanding how judges in other systems make law and decide cases, especially as the court resolved cases with global implications.


Justice Breyer’s conversation with IIJ Executive Secretary Steven Hill was presented as the keynote address at the February 2024 IIJ 10th Anniversary Symposium entitled “Does the Rule of Law Really Matter to Global Security?” His deep insights and historical references will continue to inspire the IIJ community into its second decade of rule of law programming.

09 November 2023 | Uncategorized

Germany joins the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law’s (IIJ) Governing Board of Administrators

Germany joins the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law’s (IIJ) Governing Board of Administrators, becoming the 14th member state of the board.


During the last Governing Board of Administrator’s meeting on the 6th of November, the IIJ’s board voted in favor of Germany’s request to join the board.

This step comes after years of collaboration between the IIJ and Germany and Germany’s steadfast financial support to the IIJ as a donor as well as with expertise in IIJ Programmes.

The latest joint project was a few weeks ago in Abidjan where the IIJ conducted the third in a series of workshops on Mitigating Risks Associated with Abuse of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) for Terrorist Financing Purposes in West Africa. The event, which reconvened the same cohort from two previous programs to maximize progressive expertise building and networking as well as brought in new participants, provided support in building knowledge and skills on preventing, identifying and disrupting illegal activities involving DNFBPs that contribute to financing of terrorist groups in the region.

We are looking forward to working, hand in hand, with Germany on several projects. The IIJ strives to reinforce its ability to further promote justice, the rule of law and human rights.

02 May 2023 | Uncategorized

GCTF Plenary Meeting: Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group

Welcome Remarks by the IIJ’s Executive Secretary Steven Hill
Global Counter-Terrorism Forum
Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group
Plenary Meeting
Malta, 27 April 2023

As a GCTF inspired institution, the IIJ greatly values our continued collaboration with the GCTF. We thank the Co-Chairs Italy and Nigeria for your confidence in selecting the IIJ as the implementing partner for this Plenary Meeting of the GCTF Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group.

The IIJ is pleased to have helped assemble a diverse group of state representatives, international organisations, academics and subject matter experts, and members of civil society. We extend our appreciation to the IIJ’s host country, Malta, for its constant support to the IIJ.

We are also pleased to have welcomed several international institutions, including representatives from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Global Center on Cooperative Security, and Siracusa International Institute.

This meeting focused mainly on two GCTF memoranda: the Rabat Memorandum and the Hague Memorandum.

The IIJ is a non-political organisation with a mandate from the 13 members of our Governing Board of Administrators to build the capacity of criminal justice practitioners. Our work is technical, practical, and practitioner-focused. In this regard, we welcome the intention of the Co-Chairs to identify and address the needs of practitioners.

The IIJ’s work is centered on the implementation of the GCTF documents. These documents feature prominently in IIJ courses, workshops, and other activities. The three IIJ directors who lead this work were present at the event.

Our IIJ experts moderated the panel sessions in the meeting. They specialise in a wide range of topics including addressing homegrown terrorism; mutual legal assistance and extradition; countering the financing of terrorism; global central authorities initiative; and delivering foundational courses for investigators and judges handling terrorism cases.

We also presented an update on the EU-funded Counter-Terrorism Human Rights Engagement Platform (CT PHARE) on a survey focusing on the implementing of various GCTF recommendations and other documents.

The IIJ looks forward to attending the GCTF Coordinating Committee meeting next week. We are grateful to GCFT Co-Chairs, Egypt, and the European Union, for the assistance in the preparation of panel discussion focused on the needs of African practitioners.

We also thank GCTF Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Countering Violent Extremism Working Groups for inviting the IIJ to moderate a panel during their side event on addressing the challenges related to the reintegration and rehabilitation of foreign terrorist fighters and their associated family members.

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