Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the International Development Law Organization identified the promotion of the rule of law as a fundamental necessity to create a sustainable development for the country.
IDLO began working for the reconstruction of the justice system in Afghanistan in late 2001. It conducted initial activities such as undertaking a needs assessment, building a network of Afghan legal experts and conducting a worldwide search for legal resources resulting in a collection of over 2,400 laws, which assisted the international and Afghan community analyze the applicable law following the Bonn Conference of 2002.

The IDLO Afghanistan Program Office was established in Kabul in January 2003. Since then, the Organization has completed several major judicial reform projects, primarily funded by the governments of Italy, Canada and The Netherlands, with support from the U.S. Department of State, The World Bank, UK Foreign Commonwealth Office, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. IDLO has now established itself as a leading partner for the Afghan government, donors and international agencies in the shared goal of re-establishing the rule of law.

IDLO's activities in Afghanistan have consisted in providing legal technical assistance, institution and capacity building, professional training, and in developing resources for the legal community. The Organization is now focusing on national capacity building for an increased afghan ownership. Over the past three years, IDLO has built a strong team of Afghan legal professionals who are given a steadily increasing amount of responsibility in delivering IDLO programs. For example, the percentage of training time conducted by Afghans increased from 38% in 2006, to 61% in 2007, to 91% in 2008, to 100% in 2009 - enabling IDLO to half the number of international staff previously on the program whilst simultaneously increasing the effectiveness of the training.

Through its programs, IDLO has provided training for over 2000 legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, members of Parliament, civil servants and academics. IDLO has also supported the development of the Independent National Legal Training Center (INLTC); of the Legal Aid Organization of Afghanistan (LAOA), an Afghan non-governmental organization providing legal services to the poor and disempowered; and of the specialized Violence Against Women (VAW) Unit within the Office of the Attorney General.

IDLO current program is based on an extensive needs assessment completed in the summer of 2008, following which IDLO designed a three-year, multi-donor, legal and justice sector reform program for the country. The program, “Supporting the National Justice Sector Strategy of Afghanistan: Improving Security, Legal Rights and Legal Services for the Afghan People”, which started implementation in June 2009, is structured within the National Justice Sector Strategy (NJSS) and National Justice Program (NJP).