Justice rapid response - an overview

The development and reinforcement of international justice principles and transitional justice methods since the early 1990s has not been accompanied in equal measure by practical assistance to States or international organisations to meet their responsibilities. In post-conflict situations, there may be political and security windows of opportunity conducive to the commencement of an accountability process that is not matched by available expertise or resources. Moreover, the sooner that information regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide during that conflict is identified, collected and preserved, the more likely it is that such information will be accurate and adequate for the appropriate accountability mechanisms. The international community is not now equipped to move quickly when such windows of opportunity appear. Thus crucial evidence may be lost and opportunities missed to have justice play a positive role in securing lasting peace in the post-conflict society. The JRR mechanism aims to remedy this deficiency in the context of a wide range of investigative assistance to States and international institutions.

JRR is an international cooperative mechanism for the supply of voluntary assistance at the request of a State or international institution, where the identification, collection and preservation of information would assist at any stage a wide range of international and transitional justice options. The specific functions most likely to be carried out by the JRR mechanism in this respect are, inter alia: pattern of violence investigation; forensic mapping; documentary evidence investigation; visual image collection; identification of potential witnesses; and identification of massacre sites. JRR was identified as providing an improvement on the status quo by being a cooperative mechanism that does not need to be created anew each time there is a request for assistance. In this way, it can significantly reduce response times in providing assistance that is both impartial and which meets international standards; it shares the burden of assistance through coordination of the resources of States, international organizations and civil society; and, as a global effort, provides capacity-building by involving all States in the mechanism, irrespective of resources.

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).