IBJ’s Biennial Report 2019-2020

“What a contrast! In 2019 I met face to face with our defenders on the ground in Cambodia, Myanmar, Rwanda and Sri Lanka and our Syrian lawyers in Gaziantep, Turkey. In 2020 all my meetings were online and virtual due to the COVID pandemic. Yet hope abounded. For example, Myanmar suffered a double crisis of COVID and a military coup, but our Burmese lawyers showed tremendous courage and commitment. I was so grateful that IBJ’s 2019 convenings had built a foundation for their continued strength and hope – facilitated by Zoom calls – despite restrictions, isolation and distance.

And what a time for IBJ to celebrate its 20th anniversary of transforming and strengthening criminal justice systems! Since 2000, IBJ has worked ceaselessly to provide early access to competent legal counsel, prevent investigative torture, limit arbitrary detention, and reduce corruption. Active in 48 countries, to date IBJ has impacted over 38 million lives, trained 31,00 lawyers, and provided no-cost legal protection to over 400,000 accused individuals worldwide. While our world changed from 2019 to 2020, IBJ’s mission remained the same as it stepped forward at its 20-year mark to face new challenges: strong, resolute and effective.

COVID pushed the world towards fear and isolationism, eroding fundamental human rights, particularly for vulnerable accused people. As governments put in place emergency laws and curfews to curtail the pandemic, and as police and armies maintained the streets, a precarious and unequal environment for justice emerged. Curfew breakers were beaten, tortured, and thrown in jail. Prisoners – frequently poor, sick, and unrepresented –languished in overcrowded prisons, vulnerable to the virus. Closed or reduced court operations negatively impacted timely fair hearings, causing even more prolonged pretrial detentions. Gender-based degradation and violence also spiked, as some women detainees were stripped and threatened with rape. Prisons remain society’s darkest corners, and COVID-19 only made matters worse. Also of concern, leaders in some countries took advantage of their ability to curtail civil rights “in the name of health.”

IBJ provided a strong counterforce to these widespread problems. Having remained globally at the forefront of access to justice, we were inundated with requests for support from all sectors: community level justice stakeholders like lawyers and bar associations, as well as governments, justice authorities, and prison officials. IBJ immediately acted. Here are a few examples :

• In NW Syria, IBJ formed a taskforce with the interim Ministry of Justice that visited courts and police stations on a weekly basis to ensure rights for the incarcerated.
• In India, where COVID exhausted the country’s resources, IBJ co-led legal efforts at the Supreme Court that resulted in orders to release 60,000 prisoners during the COVID surge.
• In Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, IBJ lawyers won the release on bail of 5,000 curfew violators total.
• In DR Congo, IBJ defenders successfully advocated for reduced bail fees and the release of pre-trial detainees held indefinitely while courts were closed.
• In Burundi, Burundi Bridges to Justice successfully negotiated with the Directorate of Prisons to reopen the country’s closed prisons for lawyers to access detainees across the country.

Indeed, faced with mass arrests of curfew violators, shuttered courtrooms, and locked down prisons, IBJ’s global team worked together to ensure due process everywhere. Every day, IBJ’s heoric “first responders” risked exposure to COVID and courageously entered prisons to secure bail for pre-trial detainees and conducted urgent advocacy to protect prisoners. In short, defenders are hope.

Beyond the hardships of the pandemic, 2020 exposed other lamentable problems at the heart of criminal justice systems. The killing of George Floyd shed light on systemic inequality and oppression of the marginalized within criminal justice systems worldwide. Notably, the poor remain particularly victim to injustice, as wealth — not culpability — often shapes outcomes. Presumed innocent, yet often too poor to afford the protection of a lawyer, oppressed people in pre-trial detention remain especially vulnerable to over-incarceration, torture, gender-based violence, and unfair trials. Along with our partners, IBJ has worked tirelessly to ensure that every accused person is equal before the law. IBJ has met the crisis of systemic inequality by mobilizing our legal defenders, equipping them with necessary legal tools and offering them tailored training on how to safeguard the rights of marginalized populations.

So, as we mourn the collective pandemic suffering, it is important to see 2020 as a turning point in criminal justice reform. COVID and the murder of George Floyd exposed systemic inequalities and instigated a global movement towards transformative reform within the world’s criminal justice systems.

As I contemplate that transformative reform, I often think of Afaf al-Rashid, a Syrian woman lawyer at our workshop in Gaziantep. She shared her poem of hope despite painful experiences in Syria of having been wrongly accused and tortured. And she exhorted workshop attendees, many of whom shared such experiences, to recognize the power of forgiveness, hope and love and, most importantly, the power of making the choice to move forward, fighting for other accused as defenders. Her compatriot defenders embraced her message as their defender credo.

“We have a choice,” Afaf al-Rashid said. Indeed, that choice is made every day by the many committed and courageous defenders globally. I think not only of all of them, but also of all who have joined hands with the movement. We have witnessed the astonishing resilience of our team and defenders in ensuring that the legal rights of individuals are protected around the globe, and we are grateful to you.

Without the concerted effort of IBJ’s global community of advocates and allies, our achievements throughout 2019 and 2020 would never have been possible. It is in times of crisis, that solidarity and togetherness give us hope and urge us forward.

Thank you for keeping the faith, as we work together during these times for peace and justice.”

Karen I. Tse 
CEO and Founder