Enhancing the capacity of the academia, civil society, and courts in the Imereti region has been one of the USAID Rule of Law Program’s priorities following the establishment of the Rule of Law Hub in Kutaisi.

On April 10, 2023, the Program held a lecture on People-Centered Justice (PCJ) and Court-Community Engagement, which was attended by forty students and academic staff from Akaki Tsereteli Kutaisi State University.

Dr. Tim Bunjevac, the Community Engagement Advisor at the USAID Rule of Law Program, led the session, presenting court-community engagement practices from around the world and introducing the concepts and theory of PCJ.

The participants learned about successful examples of court outreach activities designed to increase public trust in the courts.

During the lecture, Dr. Bunjevac explained the concept of PCJ, including relevant theory and design approaches, and discussed strategies for increasing courts' engagement with different court communities.

The session included an exploration of the differences between traditional and problem-solving courts, the five levers of Human-Centered Design in the courts, possible areas for expanding court-community engagement outside the courts, examples of court-community surveys, the roles and functions of court-community advisory boards, and opportunities for involving a range of external stakeholders to support court-community engagement.

The participants expressed their interest in attending similar public lectures organized by the Program in the future.