A New Multilateralism for Atrocities Prevention: A Global Fund and Development Agenda Advancing Rule of Law

The rule of law and capable governance institutions are both a bulwark against atrocities and a life preserver to an overstrained global human rights and humanitarian system, including the beleaguered Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle.

In this policy analysis brief, Mark Lagon, president of Freedom House, and Ryan Kaminski, program manager at the United Nations Association of the United States of America, offer two ideas for energizing the international community to build the rule of law around the world: a Global Trust for Rule of Law and prioritizing the rule of law in the post-2015 development agenda.

Efforts to launch a global grantmaking mechanism in the form of a Global Trust to support the rule of law need not start from scratch but can combine demonstrated institutional and structural best practices from existing institutions, including the UN Democracy Fund and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

The post-2015 development framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals offers a crosscutting opportunity to streamline a global partnership architecture supportive of access to justice and the rule of law.

These ideas open a considerable opportunity for a cross-sector coalition—including governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, grassroots leaders, and other experts—to expand the scope of rule of law assistance in an international partnership effort that could impact billions and reanimate a crucial leg of the R2P principle