Justice rapid response - an overview

JRR is an intergovernmental multilateral facility of active duty criminal justice and related professionals. These experts can be deployed rapidly at the request of the international community to investigate, analyze and report on situations where human rights and international criminal violations have been reported.

JRR is governed by a Coordinating Group, currently consisting of nine States: Argentina; Canada (Chair); Colombia; Finland; Germany; Sierra Leone; Sweden; Switzerland; and Uganda. It currently has 65 participating States as well as several organizations. JRR draws its experts from every region of the world.  The experts selected from nominations are trained in investigation of international crimes before being eligible for inclusion in the JRR roster. Operational since October 2009, JRR’s training program, developed and carried out with the assistance of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI) has already certified 144 experts. Because JRR members participate in a sponsorship program to ensure that there is a geographic, gender and linguistic balance in JRR, half of the experts come from the global South, and 36% are women. To meet the needs of modern international investigations, the JRR roster contains an increasingly broad list of expertise such as criminal and human rights investigators, forensics specialists, police and military analysts, and experts on sexual violence.

Through a prior arrangement with the expert and his/her employer, JRR roster members are deployable at very short notice (ideally in a matter of days). Requests can come from States, and international or regional organizations with the appropriate jurisdiction, such as various parts of the United Nations system or the ICC.  While JRR assesses a request to ensure that it can be responded to safely and in conformity with international law, the decision whether an expert is available for deployment remains with the expert’s employer. JRR also assists the requesting entity in identifying the most appropriate expert(s). The background and training of JRR experts enable them to contribute to a wide range of missions: human rights or international criminal law investigations; commissions of inquiry or fact finding commissions; internal investigations; and supporting special political missions, mediators and security sector reform assessments. Since becoming operational in October of 2009 JRR has successfully deployed with the International Commission of Inquiry for Guinea at the request of OHCHR; the Commission of Inquiry into the events at Les Cayes Prison on 19 January 2010 at the request of MINUSTAH; an internal investigation at the request of a UN agency; the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission; and most recently, with UN Women and OHCHR, both for the International Commission of Inquiry for Cote d’Ivoire.

In 2011, JRR carried out a strategic/business review to ensure that its management and operational structure reflect its intergovernmental nature and that it is able to evolve in a way that meets the requirements of the international community for readily deployable international investigative expertise. For more information on JRR please visit the JRR website at www.justicerapidresponse.org.

Any further request for information or assistance should be directed to the Transitional Secretariat Manager (Phone: +41 31 322 87 27; email:  Secretariat@justicerapidresponse.org) or the Justice Rapid Response Chair (Phone: + 1 212 980 0193; email: Chair@justicerapidresponse.org).

Justice Rapid Response - Meetings

Seven meetings have taken place to help define and launch the JRR concept: New York (April 2004); The Hague (June 2004); New York (December 2004, December 2005 and March and November 2007) and Venice (June 2006) involving representatives of governments, civil society and international justice institutions. An independent JRR Feasibility Study was developed, with the support of the Governments of Finland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and preparations were begun to fine-tune various aspects of the process, including logistical and practical issues and preparation of the political decision-making process with regard to the first request(s).

The Venice JRR Conference was an important step towards the eventual deployment of experts in the framework of a JRR mission where participants agreed on concrete next steps, as reflected in the Chair’s Conclusions. Participants also agreed on the importance of guidelines for cooperation and elements for deployment, which will need consideration in the future.  The New York JRR Meeting in March 2007 (Eng/Fr) was an important catalyst for moving the process forward, as it resulted in a mandate for the formation of a Steering Committee, whose task was to produce an integrated draft strategy for Justice Rapid Response.

The JRR Steering Committee produced a presented their report (Eng/Fr) on an integrated draft strategy to the JRR Meeting held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 28 November 2007 (Outcome Document, Eng/Fr; Report Eng/Fr).  Participants at the meeting adopted the report and formed themselves into the Policy Group referred to in the Report.  Having done so, the newly-constituted Policy Group indicated that they considered the Guidelines for Cooperation and Deployment (Eng/Fr) to be a suitable and useful framework for the initial implementation of the conceptual work and therefore adopted the Guidelines to serve as the initial coordinating mechanism on an interim basis.  A Coordinating Group was then formed and met the following day to prepare the next steps forward for the JRR Mechanism (Report Eng/Fr).