In this podcast, drawn from an interview at the IBA’s Global Showcase event in late 2021, Fawzia Koofi speaks about the devastating impact of the Taliban takeover, particularly on women’s rights and religious minorities. She also addresses the US withdrawal from the country and shares her views on the role of the international community in the crisis.
Koofi is a prominent Afghan politician and activist, who was nominated in 2020 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in representing the Afghan government in negotiations with the Taliban and her work to uphold women’s rights in the country.  Formerly a member of the Afghan Parliament and the Vice-President of the National Assembly, she is now the leader of a newly established political party, Movement for Change for Afghanistan – and the first woman to lead a political party in the country. 

The situation in Afghanistan remains volatile. As reports reveal up to 8 million people are facing starvation, Koofi’s hopes and fears for the country’s future are all the more significant. 

The assault on the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021 represents perhaps the starkest manifestation of a US democracy in crisis. But the strains on democracy have been evident elsewhere - from a plethora of bills being put forward across state legislatures that critics warn undermine voting rights, to a series of controversies surrounding the make-up and even legitimacy of the US Supreme Court, itself a vital component of the US democratic apparatus. 
Assessing the issues are:
Sarah Turberville, Director of the Constitution Project at the Project on Government OversightSophia Lin Lakin, Deputy Director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties UnionProfessor Paul Smith, Professor From Practice at Georgetown Law and Vice President for Litigation and Strategy at the Campaign Legal CenterFred Davis, former Co-Chair of the IBA Business Crime Committee and a lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School

It is almost two decades since the International Criminal Court was established to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In this podcast, Global Insight speaks to the first two prosecutors – Luis Moreno Ocampo and Fatou Bensouda – and one of the ICC’s key special advisers – Leila Sadat – about the ongoing challenges facing the ICC and what lies ahead for the Court as its third prosecutor, Karim Khan, settles into the role.

COP26 in Glasgow aims to accelerate movement towards the targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. With the Covid-19 pandemic delaying 2020’s talks and urgent action needed to address the climate crisis, the world will be watching closely - not only the immediate outcomes, but longer-term efforts made by states and the private sector.

In early 2021, a joint report from four criminal justice watchdogs found significant delays plaguing access to justice in England and Wales – with 54,000 unheard cases as of the beginning of the year. Some of these cases may not be heard until 2023 or even 2024. 

As Dominic Raab becomes the eighth Justice Secretary in a decade, the challenge to address the record backlog and fix Britain’s broken justice system has never been more acute. 

In this podcast, our speakers discuss the causes and impact of the backlog and the measures proposed to alleviate them, including reopening Crown courtrooms, expanding the Nightingale temporary court system until March 2022 and modifying 71 courtrooms to hold large, multi-hander trials.

The Duma elections in Russia in September 2021 will define the composition of Russia’s lower house of parliament for the next five years. They come at a testing time for the Pro-Putin ruling party Edinaya Rossiya, whose popularity has plummeted following the controversial decision to raise the state retirement age in 2018 and, more recently, its mishandling of the pandemic.

In this IBA Global Insight podcast, we look at the continued efforts by the Russian authorities to suppress dissent and silence critics like Alexei Navalny and what these measures mean for the rule of law.

Over the past decade, the legal and judicial systems of some EU member states have frequently been at odds with the EU’s requirements of independence, impartiality and adherence to the rule of law. 

Political appointments of judges and often spurious proceedings against them are among the issues causing tension, and Covid-19 has caused further aggravation.

Despite employing various measures to effect change, the situation has not improved. So what can be done?

Around the world, attacks on journalists and the press are growing exponentially. In this podcast, Global Insight examines the challenges and why freedom of expression and the media is so fundamental to a transparent and progressive society.  

President Biden’s swift measures to put climate action back on the agenda for the United States at the start of his term show the impact elections can have. This podcast explores the international influence of the US and Chinese climate policies, the relationship between populism and climate inaction and the importance of global collaboration in tackling the climate crisis. 

China's ambition and growth over the past two decades has been well documented, but what lies ahead? This podcast explores shifts in China's economic model, trade and technology, and assesses the potential impact of human rights and other issues on the country's development.