Office at the United Nations, New York

The United Nations University Office at the UN, New York (UNU-ONY) in cooperation with the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), is organizing a panel discussion entitled "A Place to Call Our Own: Land Disputes and the Rights of the Poor".

Subsequent to the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor's 2008 report, Making the Law Work for Everyone, IDLO launched a legal empowerment working paper series and related edited volume. The working paper series documents experience with legal empowerment programs in a wide range of jurisdictions around the world, including those in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. The contributions showcase the diversity of activities that can be grouped under the broad concept of legal empowerment, recently defined by the Secretary-General as "the process of systemic change through which the poor are protected and enabled to use the law to advance their rights and interests as citizens and economic actors."

This panel discussion is intended to highlight some of the knowledge and ideas relating to legal empowerment that have been captured in the IDLO working paper series. Some of the notable initial contributions of the papers include:
• Identifying unifying characteristics that link the diversity of legal empowerment approaches;
• An understanding of legal empowerment that is more comprehensive than the predominant focus on livelihood issues in the report of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor;
• Recognition of the complex social forces that affect the efficacy of legal empowerment programming; and
• Analyses of the dynamic interrelation between state and civil society in legal empowerment programming and in legal reform more generally.

McInerney led the effort in 2008 to revamp IDLO's strategy, which is considered one of the most promising and innovative approaches in promoting the rule of law to further social and economic opportunity in developing and transitional countries. As part of the new strategy, he secured a $4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for research on legal empowerment, forged working relationships with the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission and the United Nations Development Programme, and managed IDLO's partnership with the World Economic Forum's Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.

Prior to joining IDLO, McInerney practiced transactional corporate and securities law for four years with the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Ross & Hardies in New York. Later, he served as Program Manager with Social Accountability International, a nongovernmental organization specializing in corporate social responsibility. In 2001, McInerney was an adjunct professor in the Department of Ethics and Law at Fordham University's School of Business in New York.

McInerney holds a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University School of Law in Chicago, a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with Honors from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He is a member of the New York and Illinois bars, and reads and speaks French, Italian, and Spanish.

He actively publishes and speaks on topics such as legal and institutional reform in developing countries, corporate governance, corporate compliance practices, and corporate social responsibility.

Mr. Stephen Golub is Consultant and Editor of the International Development Law Organization's Legal Empowerment Working Paper Series. Stephen Golub plays a prominent role in legal empowerment policy. This includes: teaching courses featuring the topic at the University of California at Berkeley and Central European University; editing the upcoming International Development Law Organization book and the recent Hague Journal on the Rule of Law special section on the topic; and research, consulting and speaking on legal empowerment for the World Bank, UNDP, the Open Society Institute, Danida and other institutions. He also co-authored the 2001 ADB study that first articulated the concept and helped design the first and largest UNDP project on the topic, the Legal Empowerment and Assistance for Disadvantaged Project in Indonesia.

Dr. Hamid Rashid is the Senior Policy Advisor and Coordinator of UNDP's new initiative for Legal Empowerment for the Poor (LEP). In discharging new responsibilities, Dr. Rashid leads UNDP's global programme in the areas of property and land rights, labor rights and entrepreneual rights in the context of poverty eradication and human development.

Prior to joining UNDP, Dr. Rashid served as the Director General for United Nations and Multilateral Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh. He was responsible for conceptualizing, coordinating and representing Bangladesh's positions on various economic issues - special and differential market access for the least developed countries, international migration and climate change - at the UN and other multilateral forums. Dr. Rashid was the national focal point for the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and chaired key GFMD sessions in Brussels and Manila. He was also the elected Chair of the Asia Pacific Consultation on Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants during 2006-2007. His research interest includes migration as well as land governance and its impact on economic growth and development. Dr. Rashid brings to UNDP nearly seventeen years of experience, working for the Government of Bangladesh and also for the World Bank and UNICEF in Dhaka, Washington D.C. and New York.

Dr. Rashid earned his Ph.D. in Finance and Economics from Columbia University in New Yorks. He also has an MPA from Columbia University and Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas. He has taught graduate level courses in economics and public policy at the Columbia University and the London Business School.

Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud is the Director of the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations Headquarters (New York). He was Senior Academic Officer and Director of Studies at the UNU headquarters (Tokyo) from 1996 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former fellow at Harvard University (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, from 1986 to 1992), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris and has taught at the New School for Social Research (New York). In addition, he has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.), a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University (Beijing). Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in Political Science-Law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris. He also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and linguistics.

Jean-Marc Coicaud has published 14 books in the fields of comparative politics, political and legal theory, international relations and international law. They are available in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, and include the following single-authored books: L'introuvable démocratie autoritaire (L'Harmattan, 1996), Légitimité et Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997), Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007), Kokuren no Genkai/Kokuren no Mirai (Future of the UN/Limits of the UN - Fujiwara Shoten, 2007), Mai Xiang Guo Ji Fa Zhi (Towards the International Rule of Law - Sanlian Shudian, 2008). His latest book, co-edited with Hilary Charlesworth, is Fault Lines of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Jean-Marc Coicaud is now finishing two new single-authored books, Kissing War Goodbye, and Knowledge and International Institutions.

Jean-Marc Coicaud is a member of the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Council's Global Policy Innovations (New York). He also serves as an adviser for the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique (Paris).