© UNODC
The Global Judicial Integrity Network: Upholding human rights through stronger judiciarie
10 December 2021 – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the world’s foremost document enshrining the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, it represents a milestone in the history of human rights.
As recognized by the UDHR, one of the key prerequisites for safeguarding these rights in society is the presence of strong, resilient, independent, and inclusive judicial systems. These are key both to facilitate access to justice for all and provide transparent and objective remedies when injustices occur.
For this to be achievable, however, the court system must meet two criteria. Firstly, all judicial processes must be conducted in full accordance with the various facets of the universally recognized right to fair trial. Second, all judicial decisions must promote human rights and the notions of fairness, equality, and non-discrimination. Judicial outcomes must not be tainted by biases or prejudices on the grounds of gender, race or social, economic, or cultural differences.
It is imperative that the judicial system be independent and that judges act with the highest level of integrity if they are to play this crucial role. Given the intricate relationship between human rights and judicial integrity, only judges who act with full integrity will be able to ensure the full protection of human rights, while conversely, judges who do not respect human rights will ultimately fail to act ethically and with integrity.
Within this context, the UNODC Global Judicial Integrity Network has been creating unique opportunities since 2018 for judges and judiciaries to join forces in strengthening judicial integrity and preventing corruption in the justice sector. The Network strives to identify judicial integrity-related challenges and support judiciaries in addressing them, including through the development of guidance materials or tools, the collection and dissemination of good practices and experiences, and the promotion of dialogue and peer support.
Recognizing that a lasting change must start in the mindset of individual judges and their attitude towards various situations they come across, the Network has created a set of Judicial Ethics Training Tools, offered as a ready-to-use package for judiciaries interested in rolling out effective ethics training for judges. To date, some 73 jurisdictions worldwide have committed to this initiative as official training sites, with over 7,000 members of the judiciary benefiting from the tools so far. Over the past year, in answer to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Network has supported numerous training sites in designing and delivering virtual or hybrid ethics training activities.
By fulfilling its mandate to strengthen judicial integrity and counter judicial corruption worldwide, the Network plays a central role in guaranteeing human rights and, in particular, ensuring the respect of the right to fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal. As such, the Network also continues to disseminate experiences and knowledge on various key issues that might impact judges’ integrity and independence, including the use of social media by judges, gender-related judicial integrity issues, the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence, the development of codes of judicial conduct and open justice. The Network also recently started looking into the linkages between judicial well-being and judicial integrity, responding to the increasingly recognized importance of understanding the impact of judicial stress on the delivery of justice. Crucial for judicial integrity, human rights have been a cross-cutting theme throughout all these areas.
