Colette Rausch

Colette Rausch, USIP's Rule of Law Center director, shares her experience of seeing U.S. democracy through the eyes of Burmese legal advisors as they set out to create a new system of governance.

On May 18th, USIP hosted a public event on "Trauma Resilience as a Keystone to Building the Rule of Law in Conflict-Affected Societies," examining the phenomenon of trauma from the panelists' experiences in post-conflict zones and the ways in which it affects initiatives to promote justice, security, and the rule of law, with a focus on Libya as a case study.

Policymakers and experts consider how to advance U.S.-Burmese relations during this fragile period of transition in the Southeast Asian nation.

Experts from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) discuss the meaning of the term "rule of law," and the ways that USIP works to promote the rule of law around the world.

Nothing illustrates the hope and optimism the Libyan people have for post-Qaddafi Libya better than an image from the bullet-riddled streets of Misurata.

Existing systems of customary justice should be seen as a continuing and important part of international efforts to support justice reform in countries hit by conflict, a group of specialists said at the January 12 public launch of a book published by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

Yemen is seeing some of its worst violence this year with at least three subsequent days of fighting this week between divided government forces, tribal groups and unarmed pro-democracy protesters, inching the country ever closer to full-blown civil war.

USIP’s Colette Rausch, director of USIP’s Rule of Law Center of Innovation, discusses the situation in Libya and what issues Libyans will have to address after Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is out of power. While no two countries are exactly alike, USIP’s Rule of Law Center has been there before – helping countries like Nepal, Kosovo and Iraq as they navigated the minefield that is a transition from dictatorships to civil societies.

This brief was written by the director of USIP’s Rule of Law Center of Innovation and three of the center’s senior advisers: Colette Rausch, Jason Gluck, Vivienne O’Connor and Scott Worden. The authors’ analysis is informed by their knowledge of the Middle East and North Africa and their firsthand experiences in promoting the rule of law in transitional states such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo and Nepal.

USIP’s Colette Rausch discusses the challenges to justice and security in countries undergoing transformations amid recent protests in the Middle East and North Africa.

This path-breaking volume presents broad guidelines and specific prescriptions for combating serious crime in societies emerging from conflict.

USIP has supported over 300 products, projects, and activities related to human rights and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on the issue of human rights, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role human rights play in conflict and in peace.

Of unparalleled breadth, depth, and authority, the Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice is a criminal law reform tool tailored to the needs of countries emerging from conflict. Its three volumes present four complete legal codes that national and international actors can use to create, overhaul, update, or plug gaps in the criminal laws in individual post-conflict states.

In February 2007, USIP facilitated a series of dialogues between civil society, the Nepal police, and representatives of political parties to identify areas of mutual concern related to security and the rule of law in Nepal. This USIPeace Briefing presents a list of high-priority issues developed as a result of these meetings.