20 September 2023
The right to fair trial is a human right. Fair trial rights may have challenges in counterterrorism cases where defendants may lack the means to provide for their defense.
GCTF CJROL Working Group, with Italy and Nigeria as Co-Chairs, and the IIJ’s CT PHARE facility, funded by the EU as implementing partner, are collaborating on the right to fair trial, to analyze an accused person’s journey and right to fair trial along the entire justice chain. On the margins of the 22nd Coordinating Committee Meeting and the 13th Ministerial Meeting in New York, they held a side event to share insights from the results of the recently held survey with experts and practitioners.
A survey was launched to gain more valuable insights from experts and practitioners to help evaluate the Hague Memorandum Good Practice 5 and Rabat Memorandum Good Practice 7. By adding both Good Practice 5 and Good Practice 7 to the evaluation, enabled for a better understanding to be had of the whole journey from arrest to final appeal, the human rights challenges that may arise along the way, and how all of this informs the experience of the right to a fair trial. The objective was to gain insights into how the good practices are being implemented in terrorism trials around the world.
The side event was a success and allowed national authorities and stakeholders to receive information on how Hague Memorandum Good Practice 5 and Rabat Memorandum Good Practice 7 were being implemented in terrorism trials worldwide, including identifying gaps, vulnerabilities, and good practices to improve an accused right to fair trial in terrorism prosecutions. The discussions also provided avenues to establish baselines for measurement and benchmarking against the Good Practices.