World Justice Forum 2025: Standing Up for the Rule of Law

The event is organized by the World Justice Project (WJP) and will bring together hundreds of stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, including the public and private sectors, civil society organizations, media, academia, and international organizations. Under the theme “Standing Up for the Rule of Law,” the Forum aims to reverse the multi-year global rise of authoritarianism and shape a rule of law future.

The plenary, "Understanding the Global Rule of Law Recession," will feature several distinguished speakers: the Secretary-General of International IDEA; Anne Applebaum, SAIS Senior Fellow of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University; and Clare Ovey, Director of Human Rights for the Council of Europe. The session will be moderated by Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.

The aim of this panel is to frame the themes and discussions of the Forum by providing a nuanced understanding of the drivers behind the ongoing rule of law recession, particularly in the context of growing authoritarian trends and democratic backsliding. It will also offer insights on strategies to help reverse these worrying trends.

Key questions for the panel include:

• What is driving the ongoing rule of law recession, and what is its connection to rising authoritarianism?
• What have pro-democratic and pro-rule of law actors been doing wrong?
• What can be done to reverse this trajectory? What should be the role of countervailing institutions and actors such as legislatures, judiciaries, supreme audit institutions, national human rights agencies, electoral administrators, civil society, and the media?
• What lessons can we learn from country cases, such as Poland and Brazil, that have experience halting an autocratic course? 
• What lessons can be learned from the ongoing challenges such countries still face?

Find more information about the World Justice Forum 2025 complete agenda on their website: forum.worldjusticeproject.org