International Bridges to Justice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva.[1] The organization's stated mission is "to protect the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens in developing countries by guaranteeing all citizens the right to competent legal representation, the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, and the right to a fair trial".[2] IBJ has the additional stated goal "to end torture in this Century".[3]
IBJ was founded in 2000 by former public defender Karen I. Tse in response to her time spent working as a Fellow for refugees in Southeast Asia in the 1980s and then as a trainer for a group of public defenders in Cambodia in 1994.[1] After witnessing numerous violations of citizens' legal rights, Tse enrolled at the Harvard Divinity School in 1997, where she began devising the business plan for International Bridges to Justice.[4]
Principles
IBJ states that it only works in countries whose international treaty obligations and national laws have already laid the legal framework for the protection of their citizens and where a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the relevant government and legal authorities, setting out the parameters under which IBJ will work.
Method
IBJ aims to use three methods:[5]
- Providing technical support and training to criminal defense lawyers
- Organizing justice sector roundtable sessions to bring together all of the key stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including defenders, prosecutors, judges, police, detention center officials, local government representatives and legal academics
- Raising rights awareness amongst the populations in the countries where the organization is active