Areas

BLI’s interest in promoting stronger, more democratic processes and systems that allow full participation by all constituencies in society has led to the formation of integrated practice areas. We believe that expanding the state’s capacity to create efficient administrative practices and to enforce laws that support transparent and equitable governance will provide the stability that enables societal growth. And because that growth must be initiated and strengthened from the inside out, beginning with solid security and justice sector institutions, we work hard to develop programs that consider both local concerns and progressive global practices.

BlueLaw’s work on a variety of Department of Defense, Department of Home Land Security, Department of State, and USAID projects illustrates this focus on good governance, rule of law, and accountable security institutions in the belief that people have the right to participate openly and fully in their societies. Our past and current experience in the following areas reflects our commitment to these principles. 

Democracy, Governance and Rule of Law (DG-ROL)

BlueLaw enhances the systems and organizations that provide justice and stability as well as the public’s access to them.  Our work in this area ranges from court administration reform and judicial training to strategic judicial administration efforts.  We recognize that sound public administration is the cornerstone on which a government can build consistent and transparent processes for its citizenry, so we work diligently with our counterparts across the world to create administrative programs that offer lasting solutions through a combination of international best practices and local experience.  As part of this process, BlueLaw experts continually seek out the gaps in the knowledge base that supports international development efforts and move to fill them through teaching and regular publication.  Some of the efforts that we have supported in this practice area are as follows:

• Working alongside Higher Judicial Council in Iraq to rationalize and standardize manpower requirements, develop standardized case management processes, introduce strategic budgeting and capital investment planning processes

• Creating a standardized ethics training curriculum for the Indonesian Supreme Court and providing training for more than 500 judges, reviewing court’s finance and budget processes, developing stronger, more stable human resources processes for court system

• Developing a human rights-based due process training program for prosecutors and judges in Egypt 

• Improving the transparency of Albania’s public procurement process to aid in their quest for EU accession and leading practical process reviews of court operations in Albania and Ukraine in order to create new administrative courts

• Designing and implementing mock trial training for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory’s (USACIL) program for forensic examiners

We have full-time staff and associate specialists who support our work in this practice.

Human Rights & Inclusive Development (HR-ID)

As a robust part of Democracy and Governance practice, BlueLaw builds institutions and supports reforms that help ensure full access to justice and participation in society for groups that are often excluded or marginalized in their communities. Our experts have designed and implemented human rights and disability inclusion projects that have had an impact in over twenty-five countries worldwide, and include strengthening national human rights institutions, crafting human rights and disability sensitive legal and policy reforms, and implementing creative participatory human rights education programs.

Ultimately it is our goal to open and improve access for vulnerable populations to important forums (such as the institutions of justice) where their voices can be heard.

To this end, we have worked with leading judges, members of parliament, human rights ministries and a spectrum of justice sector staff members to create cooperative alliances, forge new processes and design and implement new education curricula to advocate for human rights.  The highlights of some of our projects in this practice area are provided below:

• Working with American University’s Center for Global Peace officials in the justice sector and human rights advocates in Iraq to establish an Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights.

• Training election commissions on legal reform and election access strategies consistent with international standards in Liberia, Armenia, Morocco, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan. BlueLaw is also working with its partner, American Institutes for Research, to assist USAID in implementing a disability policy that focuses on parliaments and electoral commissions in Zambia and Mexico.

• Designing, developing, and implementing the first comprehensive human rights education curriculum on the rights of persons with disabilities in partnership with Human Rights YES! Action and Advocacy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

• Partnering with The Burton Blatt Institute on a cooperative regional disability rights project that aims to bring access to information, networking, and advocacy training to caregivers, providers of legal services, parents, and citizens with a spectrum of disabilities.

We have full-time staff and associate specialists who support our work in this practice.

Security & Justice, and Police Capacity Development (SJ-PCD)

Our rule of law and human rights work complements our efforts in building capacity in organizations that provide security, justice, and law enforcement services to the communities. Under this practice, BlueLaw experts train, advise, and assist law enforcement, security and justice institutions and personnel in their efforts to develop democratic, sustainable, and effective public safety and security systems.  Our senior associates specialize in a wide spectrum of subjects relevant to the criminal justice and law enforcement systems. Drawing on their own justice and law enforcement sector experience, our senior associates help police organizations develop better administrative decision making capabilities, improve human capital management and establish public polices and processes that guard against inefficiency, corruption, and abuse of authority.  We work closely with our counterparts in various countries or on site to assess community and organizational requirements so that we can provide tailored advice, training, and mentoring services.  Our work in this area has included: 

• Working with US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (DOS-INL) to give advanced training to senior police officials from around the world at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell, NM.

• Initiating, implementing, and managing a formal process of capturing INL’s practical policy, management and implementation experience in doctrinal documents; and considering the criminal justice system’s relationship to areas such as customs/border security, civil society support, counter-narcotics, and other areas of national and international crime prevention.

• Supplying top advisors, including the majority of key personnel, throughout all phases of the Justice & Law Enforcement Assistance program in Iraq, winning consistent praise from the INL Directors in Baghdad and INL program staff in Washington, D.C.

• Advising and assisting the Government of Morocco with the reform of its juvenile justice system, specifically to improve the safety and services of Morocco’s Child Protection Centers (CPCs).

We have full-time staff and associate specialists to support our work in this practice.

Research, Analysis, Studies and Performance Management (RA-PM)

At BlueLaw, our basic philosophy follows the adage, “what gets measured, gets done.” The underlying design of BlueLaw’s research, analysis, studies and performance management practice are, therefore, based on proven program measurement and evaluation best practices and supported by experts in quantitative and qualitative research and analysis, data collection and management, survey, statistical analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and performance and impact evaluations.

Together our experienced team members help clients deliver the highest standards of programs and projects by helping clients measure realistic, achievable, and specific results organized into program relevant tools and framework. Our experts also help clients identify and develop indicators that provide useful snapshots of their program’s progress and impact, while simultaneously advising them on how the results can be integrated into the framework to enhance performance.

Our monitoring and evaluation team have helped clients demonstrate accountability, measure performance and impact, and deliver coherent and effective development programs. Since 2005, BlueLaw experts have implemented a combination of over 100 democracy and governance, rule of law, anti-corruption, and law enforcement capacity development programs, projects, and short-term assignments in more than thirty-five countries. Our team members are experts within the discipline of measurement and evaluation and also have first-hand experience in BlueLaw’s practice areas in diverse geographical settings. 

Our team enable clients achieve desired objectives through surveys, data collection, research, and analysis leading to measuring tangible results. Our team also assist clients to achieve functional understanding of intangible outputs through identification and development of program indicators. Clients are better positioned to adjust program activities upon learning what worked and what did not in the programs and why. 

Our team’s approach to performance measurement and management begins with the premise that the primary purpose of our service is not to simply collect large amounts of qualitative or quantitative data. Instead, the output of our measurement services informs decision-making, promotes accountability, increases aid effectiveness, and reinforces budget and resource expenditure discipline using reasonable, targeted data collection techniques.

In addition, BlueLaw provides capability to produce outcome-focused studies, including area studies, as well as assessments that provide a solid foundation for work across all practice areas.

• Under a direct award from the US Department of State, BlueLaw provided a range of research, analysis programming, and performance management support to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (DOS -INL). BlueLaw’s support helped improve the effectiveness and efficiency of INL programming worldwide. BlueLaw provided assistance to initiate, manage, and undertake a formal process of capturing INL’s practical policy, management and implementation experience in doctrinal documents aimed at improving criminal justice systems. BlueLaw also assisted INL in designing programing, staffing and recruitment strategies and deployed expert teams to the field to aid in developing program performance monitoring plans and strategies.
• For the DOS-INL, Blue Law has provided rapid need assessments teams. Days after the earthquake of 2010 in Haiti, BlueLaw assessment team was deployed on site to update and re-focus INL’s efforts to provide assistance to the Government of Haiti, the Haitian National Police, corrections, counter-narcotics and criminal justice systems.
• BlueLaw conducted needs assessment for USAID Burundi Policy Reform project that included site visits with three Burundian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to assess Human Rights organizational activities, program sustainability, and impact measurement methodologies. BlueLaw also helped design and develop transitional justice studies.
• BlueLaw conducted a study for the US National Council on Disability that assessed and evaluated the implementation of USAID’s disability policy and associated disability inclusive development practices in US foreign assistance programming.
• BlueLaw collaborated with Harvard Law School, Advocating Change Together, University of Minnesota Human Rights Centre and Disabled Peoples’ International, to research, draft, edit, and produce Human Rights. YES! Action and Advocacy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a participatory human rights education manual endorsed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

We have regular staff and associate specialists that support our work in this practice.

National Security Education & Training (NS-EDU)

BlueLaw has capabilities and experience in security sector reform, peacekeeping, civil military relations and national security law, policy, and educations programs. Our experts have designed and taught graduate level courses in national security strategy, regional security cooperation, maritime security, peacekeeping, disaster preparedness and relief, radicalization and terrorism, cross cultural communications, and area studies supporting various US centers of excellence in international relations and security policy.

Some of our current and past projects under this practice area are:

• Supporting Center Civil Military Relations (CCMR) Leader Development Education for Sustained Peace by providing subject matter experts and instructors in key areas of regional priorities for regional seminars and distance learning programs.
• Developing and executing a comprehensive training program for the country of Paraguay to ensure the ability to conduct advanced water and land borne operations and to successfully patrol, intercept, and seize contraband entering and/or circulating in the country. We selected, educated, and trained state and local law enforcement personnel in modern practices compliant to international due process standards. Training focused on the fundamental skills and requirements relevant to Paraguay’s border security situations. This involved the full spectrum conduct of anti-contraband operations, including – but not limited to – pursuit, interception, boarding, investigation and detection, seizing, recording, and facilitating as well as presenting evidence (contraband) in court.
• Advising and consulting with the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA), the newest of the Department of Defense’s regional centers, on various topics of defense, including peacekeeping, national security, and strategic studies.
• Designing and implementing mock trial training for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory’s (USACIL) program for forensic examiners.