Criminal Justice and Rule of Law (CJ-ROL) Working Group

The Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law (CJ-ROL) Working Group, led by Co-Chairs Italy and Nigeria, focuses on the critical role played by the criminal justice sector in combating terrorism and demonstrates the Forum’s commitment to support rule-of-law based and human rights-compliant approaches. Activities are guided by the Rabat Memorandum on Good Practices for Effective Counterterrorism Practice in the Criminal Justice Sector | Arabic | French (Rabat Memorandum) and other relevant Framework Documents under the Working Group’s Work Plan.

Current areas of focus of the CJ-ROL Working Group are inter alia:

Criminal justice responses to the linkages between terrorism, transnational organized crimes, and international crimes
Many terrorism- and terrorism financing-related crimes have an international dimension and overlap in scope with transnational organized crimes, such as corruption and other financial crimes, kidnapping for ransom, illicit trafficking (arms and weapons, drugs, natural resources, cultural property), trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and maritime crimes. Terrorist acts can also amount to international crimes, namely crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, and torture, slavery, and related sexual and gender-based crimes. These linkages raise several criminal justice challenges and trigger questions related to the applicable legal regimes, jurisdiction, cooperation matters and evidentiary challenges.

Building on the Abuja Recommendations on the Collection, Use and Sharing of Evidence for Purposes of Criminal Prosecution of Terrorist Suspects | Arabic | French and The Hague Good Practices on the Nexus between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism | Arabic | French and with a view to support the work of the United Nations in addressing criminal justice challenges relating to the linkages between terrorism, transnational organized crimes and international crimes, the CJ-ROL Working Group organized a series of expert meetings over the past several years to develop two additional GCTF Framework Documents for policymakers and criminal justice actors.

• Addendum to The Hague Good Practices on the Nexus between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism: Focus on Criminal Justice | Arabic | French (2020)
• Memorandum on Criminal Justice Approaches to the Linkages between Terrorism and Core International Crimes, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Crimes, Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling, Slavery, and Crimes against Children | Arabic | French (2021)

Putting existing CJ-ROL resources into practice
The CJ-ROL Working Group supports practitioner-focused trainings on the Framework Documents developed under its auspices, including the Glion Recommendations on the Use of Rule of Law-Based Administrative Measures in a Counterterrorism Context | Arabic | French, the Abuja Recommendations on the Collection, Use and Sharing of Evidence for Purposes of Criminal Prosecution of Terrorist Suspects | Arabic | French, and the Neuchâtel Memorandum on Good Practices on Juvenile Justice in a Counterterrorism Context | Arabic | French.

In this context, various tools were developed to promote the use of the Framework Documents elaborated under the auspices of the Working Group, including the production of interactive content:

• Good Practices: Juvenile Justice in a Counterterrorism Context
• Criminal Prosecution of Terrorist Suspects: Evidence Collection, Use and Sharing

Criminal Justice & Gender
CJ-ROL Working Group priorities include support for ongoing work related to juvenile justice, to international judicial and law enforcement cooperation, as well as collaboration with other GCTF Working Groups. It will continue to take a gender sensitive approach to its activities.

Background
The GCTF CJ-ROL Working Group was established in 2011. Until September 2017, it was co-chaired by Egypt and the United States. In September 2017, GCTF Members decided that the activities of the former GCTF Detention and Reintegration Working Group would be integrated into the three thematic GCTF Working Groups. The GCTF DR Working Group was active between 2014 - 2017. 

Explore the activities of the GCTF Working Groups here.