As we approach the term of the inaugural JusticeMakers Competition, I would like to reflect upon my experience with the JusticeMakers community members, the variety of challenges we both encountered and ways to streamline the competition process in the future.First of all, I would like to highlight how friendly, dedicated and passionate the hundreds of JusticeMakers I have been exchanging with virtually have been so far. The encouragement, support and energy we received from Vikram Srivastava and Rakesh Mathur from India, Tahir from LRF Pakistan, Olivier from Burundi, ASPDDH from Benin, Emmie Chanika from CILIC Malawi, Franck from DRC, Bandita from Nepal (see below right), Joseyav from DRC (see below left) among so many other generous individuals or organizations gave us the continuous strength to move forward in the face of a variety of challenges.

The feeling of being part of this global community of committed lawyers, NGO officers, judges, government officials and so many others from all over the world is thrilling. Thank you all.

From my point of view, one of the greatest promises of JusticeMakers lays properly in its capacity to gather committed, entrepreneurial and innovative human rights defenders and its ability to make them all feel like member of a global movement in favor of criminal justice in countries as different as Pakistan, Kenya and Brazil. To my mind, this feeling of belonging to a community that JusticeMakers has been able to spark off will further get transformed into an energy of action and innovation to concretely improve the lives of the thousands of accused persons whose dignity and rights are challenged on an everyday basis.

I have noticed that IBJ Founder and CEO Karen Tse always comes back from her trips with the strong conviction that criminal defense lawyers and other key actors of the criminal justice system lack confidence. They lack confidence in how much change they can bring in their criminal justice system. They feel extremely lonely in the face of this monumental mission – to eradicate torture and other cruel and inhumane treatments around the world. The Burundian and Indian trainees in particular told us how much it meant for them to be and feel part of a global community of defenders this summer. JusticeMakers is an answer to this search for the meaningfulness of collective belonging and action.

Of course, the challenges to build a functional and lively online community are numerous and require a lot of patience, energy and determination. One of the first barriers is purely technical: we acknowledge that the internet access is not available worldwide and that in some part of the worlds, it may be costly and/or irregular. However, technology now provides us with the unique opportunity to maintain a lively group dialogue. We should nonetheless think through a tangible strategy about how to reach some of the most remote part of the world where vulnerable people (often children and women) are the most likely to have their legal rights violated.

Maybe the JusticeMakers team could select one JusticeMakers Ambassador per country responsible for organizing JusticeMakers Roundtable Meetings/Parties (thank you Tupperware for this brilliant idea!) on a monthly-basis in remote villages of their country to keep their community members informed about what’s happening on JusticeMakers.net and then report back to the JusticeMakers community about their suggestions, comments and project ideas?

Maybe the JusticeMakers Team should create one or two “Most Active JusticeMakers Award” to urge the user to engage with other community members, whether on the forum or using the guestbook and to build a constructive and fruitful dialogue on contemporary criminal justice issues.

Maybe, and this is more ambitious, some funds should be secured and allocated on an annual basis to equip the most remote provinces of a country with computers and internet access for the relevant criminal justice system actors of these areas to be part of the online community?

These are just ideas and I would be happy if you, whether you are a JusticeMakers community member or a simple reader could provide me with your insights at: fanny@justicemakers.net

Thanks for keeping the promise of JusticeMakers alive.