A Message from JRR Executive Director, Andras Vamos-Goldman:
Dear Supporter of Justice Rapid Response,
I am pleased to share the news that Justice Rapid Response has deployed its 100th mission.
Like the 99 that came before it, this mission is providing investigative expertise to ensure credible accountability can be realized for victims of mass atrocity crimes and serious human rights violations.
This 100th mission comes at a time when the JRR roster is growing and demand for JRR’s services is stronger than ever. I am proud to say that JRR’s roster now offers more than 600 of the world’s top criminal justice and human rights experts to the international community. These experts hail from over 100 countries and every region of the world, speak over 90 languages, and more than half are women. Thanks to the diversity of expertise and skills available on its roster, JRR has been able to pursue its vision: ensure that the right expert, with the required experience, training, language, cultural background and understanding, is made available at any given time, thus pursuing the highest standard of the investigations that will form the basis of accountability mechanisms.
We at JRR are continually identifying areas where more expertise is needed. This led to our very successful partnership with UN Women, which has resulted in an SGBV Justice Experts roster of over 170 professionals, and over 40 missions specifically focused on improving the investigation of sexual and gender based violence in conflict situations. In addition to our Complementarity and Mentoring Humanitarian Responders programmes, this year we have also expanded the number of experts who are specialists in dealing with serious crimes involving children, an initiative undertaken in partnership with the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative and our training partner, the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI). These highly-specialized experts from every region of the world have been added to the JRR roster and now stand ready to assist when they are needed.
I would like to mark this milestone by extending my sincere thanks to our partners, Executive Board members, JRR staff in Geneva and New York, and all the experts on the JRR roster, as well as their employers. Your continued support of JRR has made this achievement in improving the delivery of justice and accountability possible, and in just seven short years. I would especially like to recognize the experts, for continuing to exemplify the utmost excellence, professionalism and dedication to the cause of justice.
Together, with every mission successfully completed, with every expert deployed, we are moving closer to realizing JRR’s vision:
A world where every human right or international criminal law violation is investigated professionally, impartially and promptly.
Sincerely,
Andras Vamos-Goldman