Mechanisms for monitoring the criminal justice system’s performance, including state and civil society actors, established,
New performance indicators for criminal justice agencies developed,
A national victimization survey carried out,
An analysis of practices related to pre-trial detention and other preventive measures in the country carried out,
Recommendations for improving the quality of judiciary developed with special focus on investigative judges.
Implementation Strategy/Activities
The Program will build on the findings of the Criminal Justice Performance from a Human Rights Perspective Report and the problems identified so far. In order to contribute to the improved criminal justice policy-making and respond to the needs of the society in ensuring safety, security and a fair administration of justice for all participants in the criminal justice process, the Program will undertake the following activities:
Promoting and advocating for the criminal justice agencies to set up a new system of performance indicators, in particular for police, prosecution, courts, and criminal defense lawyers.
Setting up a monitoring and assessment system of the performance of criminal justice agencies. The goal is to assess the impact of the criminal justice agencies activities against their statutory goals and advocate for appropriate changes. There is need for such an assessment since currently there is simply no state or non-state institution able to assess the impact of criminal justice agencies and reforms after reforms are made, without a comprehensive view on the system. For specific issues, additional research will be conducted to acquire enhanced evidence for successful advocacy strategies, for example the negative impact on the case outcomes of the false confessions, etc.
A victimization survey will be conducted, for the first time in the country. The aim is to analyze the levels of victimization in the society and include this tool in the monitoring agency’s activities. The outcomes will also be used as lobbying tools for improving the legal protection of victims and other participants in the criminal justice process.
Monitoring of the practices on applying the pre-trial detention in the country. An analysis will be carried out to identify the trends and practices in applying the pre-trial arrest, the consequences on case outcomes and recommendations will be developed for reducing the use of pre-trial detention.
The Program will develop specific activities to tackle the problems faced by judiciary. In this context, the Program finds it necessary to focus on the following activities:
analysis of the legal framework and legislative process that affect the judiciary, especially the work of investigative judges. The analysis will be part of the pre-trial analysis mentioned above,
strengthen the professional capacities of investigative judges through the development and implementation of a comprehensive training program. The focus will be on use of non-custodial measures and motivation of arrest warrants.
