Waging Justice
TrialWatch exposes injustice, helps to free those unjustly detained, and promotes the rule of law around the world. TrialWatch monitors criminal trials globally against those who are most vulnerable — including journalists, protesters, women, LGBTQ+ persons and minorities — and advocates for the rights of the unfairly convicted.
Over time, TrialWatch will use the data it gathers to publish a Global Justice Ranking exposing countries’ performance and use it to support advocacy for systemic change.
Many of the most significant political moves worldwide are playing out in the courts and it is vital we know what’s taking place in courtrooms around the world, data which is not generally available. As the only comprehensive, global program monitoring trials for injustice, and active in over 35 countries, TrialWatch is filling this gap.
We do this by sending monitors into courtrooms to document everything about a case – including whether someone has access to a lawyer and if the judge seems biased. When an injustice occurs, we will carry out or fund legal advocacy in regional or international forums to try to right the wrongs we have witnessed, or to bring attention to them on a global scale.
My case was immediately elevated. And the prosecutors . . . the magistrate . . . they should have been on alert to know that someone else other than themselves was monitoring the process and going to give a grade.
Ugandan women’s rights activist Stella Nyanzi
TrialWatch is the first initiative of its kind.
Since our launch in April 2019, TrialWatch has already monitored trials in more than 35 countries and in every region of the world. From intervening before domestic courts of appeal in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to taking cases to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to supporting critical litigation before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, TrialWatch has become an active voice in the fight to make the word “justice” apply to everyone.
Through my experience, I think that TrialWatch is important because it documented all events and exposed human rights violations, and this is important for political detainees who are released from prison with nothing BUT their dignity.
Moroccan Journalist Hajar Raissouni
TrialWatch’s work involves three main stages: monitoring, evaluation, and advocacy. Each of these plays a part in preventing or remedying abuses: