GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRETRIAL JUSTICE

5th International CURE Conference, 22 Feb. 2011

WHAT IS PRETRIAL JUSTICE?

• Promoting alternatives to pretrial

detention, and reducing its excessive &

arbitrary use.

• Expanding access to legal assistance for

indigent criminal defendants.

• Deploying paralegals & lawyers to

intervene early in the criminal justice

process.

• Focusing on period from arrest to

beginning of trial.

THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

The implications of excessive and arbitrary

pretrial detention impact over three

million people on any given day and

over ten million people per year.

If we also consider the indirect impacts on

families and communities the numbers

reach into the hundreds of millions.

• xx

A GLOBAL PROBLEM

Proportion of all prisoners who are in the pretrial

stage:

• Liberia 97%

• Mali 89%

• Haiti 84%

• DRC and India 70%

• Bangladesh, Peru 68%

• Nigeria 67%

• Italy 58%

© PAS

Uganda

Malawi: 300 licensed lawyers (1 per 60,000)

Nigeria / Bangladesh: many lawyers but little representation for the poor

TOO FEW LAWYERS

WASTED LIVES AND OPPORTUNITIES

500 million ‘person days’….

….could build 10 of these…

WASTED RESOURCES

1.9

3.3

3.3

10.6

18.3

0 4 8 12 16 20

UN budget (2006)

WHO biennial budget (2006-07)

Global Fund disbursements (2002-06)

Cost of feeding 100m people for one year(2003)

Annual PTD costs to European states(2005)

USD billions

WHY FOCUS ON PRETRIAL JUSTICE?

Entry point to the criminal justice system.

Checks and balances are often minimal.

Indicative of the problems magnified

further down the justice chain.

Serious ramifications for defendants,

detainees, their families and communities…

CONSEQUENCES OF INADEQUATE LEGAL

ASSISTANCE & DETENTION

• Detention of innocent

• Spread of disease

• Abuse & torture

• Corruption

• Aggravation of household poverty

CONCERTED ACTION

GLOBAL CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

• Gather empirical evidence to document

the scale and gravity of the problem.

• Pilot innovative practices and

methodologies, to identify effective, low-

cost solutions.

• Build a forum for sharing knowledge

among practitioners, researchers and

policymakers – across communities.

• Foster sustained investment by donors &

governments.

GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR PRETRIAL JUSTICE

Thank You

Martin Schoenteich

Open Society Justice Initiative