Creating a data-driven, incentivised dynamic for justice
(
Private sector
)
#SDGAction43280
Description
Objective:
Ensuring justice systems in developing countries prevent rather than aggravate human rights abuses. To achieve this we will create a dynamic for justice that creates a momentum that will endure.
Implementation and Methodologies Accountability:
We will work to extend due process and trial monitoring by professional trial monitors to lay monitors using smartphone apps. These apps will inform about correct criminal procedures, provide checklists and have a reporting facility. The data which comes in will be analysed to reveal patterns of incorrect procedure, mistreatment and perversions of justice. This will be complement by extracting data from inexpensive digital case management systems provided to courts, police and prosecutors to monitor rights compliance, and by deep, machine learning and predictive legal analytics that uses Artificial Intelligence to examine data from past, just cases, to make predictions about the likely outcome of a prosecution if a case is handled fairly and impartially. This in no way replaces judges, but by calculating statistical variances or deviations for individual judges from AI-predicted outcomes, those who may be incompetent, corrupt, etc., can be identified. Professional trial monitors will then target judges, thereby making better use of resources to improve accountability. And, through cross-referencing data from the apps, case management systems and predictive analytics, data accuracy can be far better assured in order to also bring police and prosecutors to account.
Incentivising justice: Our innovative use of blockchain and cryptocurrency will incentivise justice, as currently, in most developing-world jurisdictions, ‘incentives’, such as bribes and promotion, favour injustice. This will be done on four levels:
1. Incentivise compliance with fundamental rights by officials: judges, prosecutors, police and lawyers will have an easily recognisable vested interest in a legal system that complies with fundamental rights.
2. Incentivise objective monitoring of legal systems by professionals: trial monitoring must be professionalised and standardised, but with safeguards that ensure the highest ethical standards.
3. Incentivise learning about fundamental rights by citizens and their engagement in compliance: using a blockchain platform rewards will be introduced for the comprehension of fundamental rights; ratings of officials based on that understanding; and reports on compliance levels.
4. Incentivise initiatives to make 1, 2 and 3 viable by offering financial rewards for private-sector, social enterprise initiatives.A network of highly committed and motivated players working collaboratively will be formed, dynamically led and carefully coordinated. These will include lawyers and paralegals, locally-based NGOs, community leaders, technology companies, legal services companies, aid funders, social entrepreneurs, courts, police and prosecutors.
Follow-up mechanisms, Having rigorously tested the initiative at pilot stage, monitored outputs and evaluated outcomes, it will then be scaled up to national level before being adopted in other countries after suitable adjustments have been made.
Governance Mechanisms relating to Theory of Change, the correct use of evidence, value-for-money evaluation, risk mitigation, optimising learning, ethics enforcement, due diligence and performance improvement will be strictly adhered to.
Criminal justice systems should be the bedrock for law and order. Thus tackling the grip of criminality on them is key to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, and providing access to justice for all.
Promoting the rule of law through building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions in the way we suggest, means the billions who are currently deprived of security, rights, opportunities and economic advancement, because of legal-system corruption and criminality, will be accorded dignity.
According to the of the Justice Task Force of April, 2019 (The Report): “Mechanisms for accountability and transparency can also help justice systems to prevent rather than aggravate human rights abuses. Giving victims, community bodies, and interested civil society parties access to data on the outputs of justice systems allows them to monitor enforcement and expose abuses.” “Opening up systems to independent scrutiny and allowing for the publication of the results of such scrutiny,” it says, “reduces the likelihood that justice systems themselves become a source of injustice.”
The Report, in recognising the need to create trustworthy justice systems, clearly asserts that they “need a new sense of accountability to the people they are designed to serve. An evidence-based approach that asks participants in judicial processes about their perceptions of fairness and their experience of the justice process is needed to hold providers to account and to give them feedback on the service they provide.” We expect to make the best use of modern technology to achieve this.
The dynamic for justice that we expect to create is alluded to in the Report, in affirming that: “Open and independent data is a tool for accountability and allows citizens to DEMAND CHANGE”. (Our emphasis)
Initially a pilot project will be run in a single court district of a developing country using inexpensive survey software for simple smartphones and low-cost case management software. The predictive analytics element involves a higher level of sophistication, but AI platforms which use data to predict the outcome of court cases in civil cases already exist and can be adapted.
Positive results from an initiative like this are expected to be immediate and increase over time.This is because:
1. Knowledge by the various actors in legal systems that close monitoring and data collection are taking place will bring about immediate improvement in conduct.
2. The collection of data involves training laypeople to monitor detention and trials, thus communities will be far more aware of their rights and will expect them to be upheld.
3. The initiative benefits greatly from the collaboration of different groups and individuals in society, which will help to imprint standards of conduct and give all involved shared ownership of a successful outcome.
4. Transparency and inclusivity will increase societal trust in the legal system to which people are then more likely to go to resolve disputes. Our initiative can be replicated around the world, replacing ineffective, meretricious approaches to advancing the rule of law that currently attract the most resources.
SDGS & Targets
Goal 16
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
16.1
Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere
16.1.1
16.1.2
16.1.3
Proportion of population subjected to (a) physical violence, (b) psychological violence and/or (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months
16.1.4
Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live after dark
16.2
End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
16.2.1
Proportion of children aged 1–17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month
16.2.2
16.2.3
Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18
16.3
Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
16.3.1
Proportion of victims of (a) physical, (b) psychological and/or (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms
16.3.2
16.3.3
Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism
16.4
By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime
16.4.1
16.4.2
16.5
Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms
16.5.1
16.5.2
16.6
Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
16.6.1
16.6.2
Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services
16.7
Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
16.7.1
Proportions of positions in national and local institutions, including (a) the legislatures; (b) the public service; and (c) the judiciary, compared to national distributions, by sex, age, persons with disabilities and population groups
16.7.2
16.8
Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance
16.8.1
Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizations
16.9
By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
16.9.1
16.10
Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements
16.10.1
16.10.2
16.a
Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime
16.a.1
16.b
Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development
16.b.1
SDG 14 targets covered
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- Africa
- Asia and Pacific
- Global
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- West Asia
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Contact Information
Frank Richardson, Mr.