Co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law's Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law Interest Group and the United States Institute for Peace International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL) and in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of International Law, this program will focus on the lessons learned from Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere and will  highlight  the importance of developing a US government civilian ready capacity for reconstruction and stabilization (R&S), including, among other priority sectors, transitional justice, security and rule of law.

The U.S. Department of State presently is developing such a capacity in coordination with an initial seven other U.S. Government executive Agencies – USAID, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department. The Civilian Response Corps (CRC) will be a group of full-time civilian federal employees from across several Agencies in a combination of Active and Standby roles working on international R&S work, and, eventually plans to include experts from the private sector and state and local governments who will serve as CRC Reservists. The Corps members will be pre-vetted, pre-trained and equipped to deploy rapidly to countries in crisis or emerging from conflict, as well as to participate in Washington and regionally based planning and collaborative civilian-military exercises, in order to provide coordinated reconstruction and stabilization assistance. The Civilian Response Corps will work in coordination with the military transition, the UN and other entities in the field. It will be comprised in large part of law enforcement and corrections officers, prosecutors and other justice and rule of law personnel, war crimes and human rights experts, serving as advisors and mentors to local police, judges, prosecutors, and providing support for securing evidence of past crimes and atrocities committed during the conflict. In addition to rule of law experts, the Corps will include diplomats, development specialists, public health officials, engineers, economists, public administrators, agronomists and others – to provide the full range of skills needed to help fragile states restore stability and achieve economic recovery and sustainable peace as quickly as possible.

In this ASIL program Ambassador John Herbst, Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, and Ambassador Clint Williamson, Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, will discuss their experiences and impressions of this critical area of reconstruction and stabilization, and the importance and significance of establishing this new U.S. government expeditionary capacity. Melanne Civic, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, U.S. Department of State Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, Civilian Response Operations, will moderate the discussion.

To listen to audio of this program, please use the following links:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

To view a transcript of the event, please click here.