A Message from our Executive Director
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This year, Justice Rapid Response is celebrating its 10th anniversary!
More than 10 years ago, States and international criminal justice actors came together to solve a pressing problem in the international justice system: how can we ensure investigations into serious human rights abuses are professional, impartial, and prompt? From those many discussions, the idea for a rapid-response mechanism emerged, and Justice Rapid Response was born.
Since then, Justice Rapid Response has grown into a truly global organization with a roster of more than 700 criminal justice and human rights professionals, individuals who have supported critical investigations into serious crimes and documentation of massive human rights abuses. Whether providing tailored mentoring to national justice actors, designing more inclusive strategies for documenting abuses or supporting a team of United Nations investigators, expertise from Justice Rapid Response has become indispensable to efforts for justice and accountability around the globe.
In light of this landmark, we are spearheading a year-long anniversary campaign to facilitate global dialogue on what Justice Rapid Response has always been about: ensuring professional, impartial investigations conducted in the interest of credible accountability for international crimes and serious violations of human rights.
For this 10th anniversary campaign, we hope to draw on a decade of experience supporting justice for grave violations of human rights on the national, regional and international level. Over the course of 2019, we will convene discussions online and in-person, led by our experts, partners and staff. We will consider questions such as: how is the landscape of international justice changing? How can we work to improve standards of investigations and empower victims in justice processes? What persistent challenges exist today, and what kind of innovation will we need in the years ahead?
To kick off the campaign, I invite you to watch our new short video about our work and impact around the globe, including in places such as The Gambia, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria.
As always, we take this opportunity to thank all of our experts, donors, and partners for continuing to help Justice Rapid Response deliver on our mission.
Sincerely,
Nina Suomalainen
Executive Director