Op-Ed: Equal access to justice for all

Op-Ed: Equal access to justice for all
Allyson Maynard-Gibson.

By Allyson Maynard-Gibson

Speech delivered during a special event at the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Kyoto, Japan, on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. 

I have often heard it said that when written in Mandarin, the word crisis is composed of two characters — one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.

The pandemic places us on the pathway of opportunity, which must be seized if we are to achieve the SDG16 goal of “peace, justice and strong institutions”.

I was a member of the Task Force on Justice and I commend its “Justice for All Report”. Our struggles in access to justice are shared across the globe — from The Bahamas to the United States to Sierra Leone, Argentina and the Netherlands. In different cultures, they may present differently, but the bottom line is that people experience common justice problems no matter where they live, and institutions are not delivering fair outcomes.

In 2012, when I became the attorney general and minister of legal affairs in The Bahamas, there was considerable cynicism about the efficacy of our legal system. Far too many rape and murder matters were taking from six to 10 years to come to trial. These delays denied justice to victims and alleged offenders — and their families. I was privileged to lead national and international stakeholders who were committed to combatting this crisis through “communication, co-operation and collaboration”. We launched a program, called Swift Justice, whose focus was to provide the framework by which all stakeholders in the administration of justice could work together to swiftly bring matters on for trial, and engender confidence in fair outcomes.

Some of the outcomes of this collaboration were: days to present a voluntary bill of indictment decreased by 277 days; 112 more serious matters were tried in 2015 than in 2012; 10 criminal courts were 21st Century technologically equipped; and an Office of the Public Defender was established.

One human impact of these changes was that families of victims of murder could now have resolution of a matter within a reasonable time after burying their loved one, rather than 10 years after.

Let’s fast forward to 2021.

What opportunity exists in the COVID crisis?

An important opportunity is for justice leaders to do what public health leaders routinely do — come together, exchange best practices for rapid, just and people-centered action.

When the pandemic hit, the Justice Leadership Group worked with a large group of justice experts on two briefings on Justice in a Pandemic.

The first was “Justice for All and the Public Health Emergency”, where we advocated that justice actors on the frontline, like public health actors, must be protected. Emergency measures curtail human rights. Therefore, it is important that political leaders be held to account, safeguards be introduced for at-risk communities and justice actors be supported in their work, in partnership with community leaders, to safeguard human rights. Across the world, mobility restrictions increase women’s vulnerability to abuse. Some survivors report being unable to seek legal redress due to court closures. Further, the first responders are overwhelmed or have shifted priorities. UN Women has called domestic violence “a shadow pandemic”.

The pandemic ushered in an overnight shift to technology and innovation. Justice leaders are following the public health example of giving service online. Increasingly, we are seeing the political will to partner with communities and to support innovation so that grassroots and other community workers can help people to resolve their problems — in their communities. The danger of the spread of COVID in prison has also led to courts, more and more, utilizing restorative justice principles. Also, to reduce demand on the justice system, governments are encouraging law enforcement officials to cease arresting people for minor offences.

The second briefing was “Justice for All and the Economic Crisis”. The economic impacts of the pandemic have also increased the number of justice problems people face, related to unemployment, evictions, divorce, etc. At the same time, justice actors are under increased pressure. Resources are limited and they are restricted in their ability to move about to give services.

Different types of crime have also emerged, with fake PPE (personal protective equipment) being sold, fake systems to get vaccination appointments and other schemes to defraud individuals. And there are serious problems in procurement processes in places as diverse as Malawi and Philadelphia.

The Justice Response, equivalent to a vaccine in the public health context, requires a systemic shift.

Reliance on data is critical. In rapidly changing circumstances, it is even more important to collect data to understand people’s justice problems, their experiences on their justice journey and analyze what does and does not work.

The pandemic unleashed a wave of innovation. Pilot projects with remote courts and digital systems were scaled up rapidly. Now is the time for justice leaders to look at what worked, what to keep and what to improve.

Public resources will remain under stress and the number of justice problems is high — and rising. Now is time to rethink justice services. Can we be smarter, more efficient, more pleasant — more people-centered?

The new and creative partnerships, created in response to the pandemic, hopefully, will lead to the understanding that justice is the golden thread through all of the SDGs and the foundation of all strong societies.

Pope Francis said: “A worldwide tragedy like the COVID-19 pandemic momentarily revived the sense that we are a global community, all in the same boat, where one person’s problems are the problems of all. Once more, we realized that no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together.”

So that we can be “saved together”, public health leaders are finding ways to make vaccines available to all. Justice leaders must take it global.

I invite you to three commitments that every country, and all justice leaders, can make to accelerate people centered justice for all:

  1. Encourage the trend of justice leaders meeting virtually at regional and subregional forums to support innovation and develop shared strategies for tackling the economic crisis.
  2. Reinforce the understanding that the movement for justice for all people undergirds the SDG targets for inclusive growth, decent jobs for all, the economic empowerment of women and all SDG targets.
  3. Encourage your governments to influence international financial institutions, G20 finance ministers and other platforms for international economic policymaking to put justice at the heart of the global response and recovery.

Please remember that we are all in the same boat and we all achieve more when we row together — in the same direction.

Together, we can achieve equal justice for all.