An actionable roadmap for delivering justice and strengthening the rule of law by unlocking the potential of a country’s own data.
OPTIONS | The Justice Audit offers different strategies
depending upon the needs and circumstances of a government.
The Justice Audit is an in-depth examination of
how a national justice system is functioning and
identifies key areas for targeted intervention
and improvement.
The Justice Snapshot depicts how a country’s
justice system functions after a conflict or
disaster and provides a matrix of actions in
support of early recovery.
The Court Audit dives deep into case data
to filter and clear backlogged cases clogging
up the courts by way of targeted Case
Management Orders.
The Prison Audit tackles prison overcrowding,
both in advance through early warning systems
and by identifying existing prisoners eligible for
release and referring them to the courts.
PROCESS | Whether conducting an Audit or Snapshot, The
Justice Audit path follows a set of common steps:
Engage stakeholders. The Justice Audit Team
works with stakeholders across the system,
from government leadership, to justice actors,
to community members. Consent and
participation are vital to success.
Collect and validate data. We work with local
partners to gather data from a wide variety of
sources, and supplement it with new survey
and observational data. Then we go back and
validate the data with the institutions
concerned.
Analyse and visualise data. Data gives us
numbers, and we study and parse them to
better map the system and identify gaps using
highly accessible data visualizations.
Identify opportunities. We work with
government to identify actionable steps in
the rule of law framework and produce a
roadmap for benchmarking progress over time.
Deliver the product. The result of this work
is a data-driven analytical tool. Following
government approval, we transfer the
necessary skills and data sets to a local partner
to update and maintain into the future.
The Justice Audit is objective and apolitical. It is a
diagnostic process and does not score or rank
countries or institutions.
PROJECTS | Since 2011, Justice Audits have been conducted in
Asia and Africa and are being adapted to local jurisdictions in
North America.
Link to external website
Link to PDF
IMPACT | The Justice Audit has enabled countries to identify and
implement targeted reforms to improve their justice systems.
The Bangladesh Justice Audit revealed an
urgent need to strengthen justice services at
the local level and address case backlogs in the
courts and overcrowding in prisons. The
government subsequently expanded local
Village Courts across the country and
commissioned a Court Audit.
The Bangladesh Court Audit revealed
underlying causes of case backlog and
identified opportunites for filtering and
clearing cases, which led to a series of Case
Management Orders estimated to reduce the
backlog by more than 30 percent.
The Malaysia Justice Audit revealed high
volumes of drug users in the courts and prisons
notwithstanding the government’s progressive
treatment policies, and uncovered high
numbers of unrepresented accused entering
guilty pleas. As a result, the government
prioritised legal aid reforms.
The Pakistan Prison Audit identified prisoners
held unlawfully or unnecessarily which resulted
in a reduction of the KhyberPakhtun Khwa
province prison population by 25 percent.
TESTIMONIALS | Praise for The Justice Audit from government
and international development leaders.
“This is what I wanted because only when you have a complete, rather than partial,
view do you understand what is going on . . . and I can check our progress against
this baseline when we do another audit.”
Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bangladesh
November 2018
“The South-Central Somalia Justice Snapshot is a shared public good. It informs a
wider community of stakeholders and provides a strong evidence base to improve
access to justice.”
DFID/FCDO project manager, Nairobi
July 2020
“[The Ethiopia Justice Snapshot] is data rich. The visualisation is insightful. Despite
the constraints, you have gone to a level of detail that may be a first for Ethiopia.”
UNDP Resident Representative, Ethiopia
December 2021
The Justice Audit is the justice equivalent to a
full medical check-up. It shows causes of system
dysfunction and prescribes remedial action.
LEADERSHIP | The Justice Audit is led and implemented by an
international team of criminal justice experts.
The Justice Audit is led by
Johann Kriegler
A Founding Justice
Constitutional Court
South Africa
Program implementation is carried out by
The Governance and Justice Group
The Governance and Justice Group (GJG)
was founded in 2009 as an association of
individual practitioners from many countries to
help develop solutions to practical problems
arising in the administration of criminal justice.
The GJG works with governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organisations as well as a range of international
development agencies and universities.
and advised by
Thomas F. Geraghty
Class of 1969 James B. Haddad
Professor of Law, Emeritus
Northwestern University
Pritzker School of Law
Chicago, IL, USA
Justice Mapping
Justice Mapping (JM) is a consulting network of
subject area experts and information technology
specialists who study criminal justice operations
and surrounding conditions at the local level.
JM produces data visualisation tools designed
to help philanthropies, policymakers, and
advocates reframe justice policy around places,
coordinate operations in neighbourhoods, and
reinvest in safer communities