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New York, November 24, 2008
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The Open Society Justice Initiative released a series of reports today that examine donor and government support for criminal justice reform projects, offer recommendations for more effective investment in the field, and provide methodologies for calculating the costs and benefits of pretrial detention and legal aid.
The reports are part of a larger Justice Initiative campaign to both gauge existing support for justice sector reform and encourage more coordinated and efficient investment in reform projects. The Justice Initiative campaign—which received backing from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID)—focuses on legal aid and pretrial detention and seeks to mobilize donors to invest in better criminal justice projects.
The reports issued today, available
at http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=104173,
include:
·
Towards A New Consensus on Access to
Justice (17 pages), summarizes a workshop
co-hosted by DFID and the Justice Initiative in April 2008 that was attended by
representatives from some 30 international donor organizations. The objective of the workshop was to increase consensus
among donors and international organizations on ways to support improved access
to justice and the rule of law. It provided a forum to: (i) identify
best practice and lessons learned in the field of justice assistance, and (ii)
determine do! nors’ interest in collaboration to promote access to justice for
the poor. In particular, the workshop sought to identify practical steps to
establish a donors’ “community of practice.”
·
Balanced Justice and Donor Programs:
Lessons from Three Regions of the World
(31 pages) takes a close look at the effectiveness of justice-strengthening
programs in three countries—Cambodia, Guatemala, and Nigeria—and finds
weaknesses including a lack of attention to some areas of the justice system,
absence of synergy among donors, and inadequate monitoring and evaluation. The
report found that, in the three countries analyzed, implementation imbalances
were common and reflect some persistent and problematic patterns in donor
assistance. For example, donor engagement in penal reform—including pretrial
detention reform&! mdash;is sparse. The report found that legal assistance
projects tend to be small-scale, focus only on particular themes or
constituencies (e.g. domestic violence), and are often funded by donors
precisely because the recipient government is unwilling to devote resources or
attention to the area but will allow the donor to make a non-structural
intervention.
·
Towards A New Consensus on Justice
Reform: Mapping the Criminal Justice Sector
(119 pages). The report looks at the donors investing in criminal justice
reform, their policies and areas of interest, the countries in which they
invest, and existing collaboration among them. It also provides recommendations
for improved donor effectiveness. The report is intended to increase
understanding of the extent and scale of international support in the justice
sector.Significantly, the report finds that donor investment in justice is a
gr! owing area of activity. Moreover, donors are approaching justice reform
from various perspectives, including human rights, civil society strengthening,
post-conflict peace-building and reconstruction, governance, security sector
reform, and legal and judicial development. However, donors often lack the
appropriate tools to ensure coherent and effective aid activities in the field,
and to promote a coordinated approach in the implementation of projects.
· Pre-Trial Detention: A Cost-Benefit Approach (37 pages), by Roger Bowles of York University and Mark Cohen of Vanderbilt University. This study establishes a framework for exploring the economic and social costs of pretrial detention, and for determining optimal pretrial detention and bail policies.
Pre-Trial Legal Aid for Criminal Defendants: A Cost-Benefit Approach
(), by Bowles and Cohen. The report considers what impact legal aid may have in early stages of criminal proceedings, including its role in bail determination.
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