The Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law (CPICL) has won an AusAid award to strengthen the internal capacity of the National Judicial Academy (NJA) of Nepal to fulfil its mandate to undertake and manage training and professional development activities for justice sector stakeholders. The award which follows competitive bidding under AusAid’s Public Sector Linkages Program is worth over quarter of a million dollars.

Under the terms of the contract CPICL will provide support to the NJA in improving internal capacity training faculty and staff in adult learning and participatory training techniques, develop key NJA training staff’s capacity in regard to identified priority substantive law areas; and develop planning and management capacity by supporting senior NJA management in understanding and undertaking of key operational planning activities. The project will be undertaken in 2007 and will involve training activities in Nepal and Brisbane, Australia for senior judicial staff and court administrators.  

CPICL Director Professor Suri Ratnapala observes that ‘The project comes at a critical moment in Nepal’s political transition to constitutional democracy and will make an important contribution to the strengthening of the country’s legal institutions and the rule of law’.