OpenTrial is an Ethical Enterprise. We make money so that we can sustainably achieve a cause; and that cause is the just treatment of citizens by legal systems worldwide.
Most criminal justice systems in developing countries are dysfunctional because of corruption, violence and political influence. This blights the lives of individuals and families, and even blights entire societies. It should come as no surprise, then, that so many people want to escape this curse in order to achieve a better life in countries where the rule of law prevails.
But today this root cause of so much suffering, instability and conflict can be tackled. Criminal justice systems have criminal elements within them because they are not transparent and, therefore, not accountable. The good news is that the internet, even in the developing world, offers antidotes.
The old rule-of-law industry’s top-down approach is not effective such that, worldwide, the rule of law is in decline. OpenTrial’s approach, however, is bottom-up. We work to legally empower societies by informing, monitoring, reporting, identifying and correcting flaws in legal systems, and we harness modern technology to do this.
We are very much aware that judges, prosecutors and police cannot be held accountable where people in society are unaware of what they have a right to expect from these officials. So we start by informing people about their fair trial and pre-trial detention rights, as well as their right to competent police protection, free of corruption. These rights are often enshrined in a country’s constitution and/or its legislation. Unfortunately, because of legalese, an official language that is not native and even illiteracy, the ordinary citizen will have no comprehension or even awareness of these. Conventional, analogue methods can go some way in correcting this; but smartphone apps, websites, social media and even video games can go much further.
Interactive smartphone apps and websites are particularly powerful because they allow for abuse in criminal justice systems to be reported. An aggregation of reports, once the incoming data is analysed, can be used to identify flaws, such as a police officer who uses violence to extract bribes, so that the ‘problem’ can be corrected, and without endangering any one person doing the reporting. Online databases, which not only make this data public, but also detail the codes of conduct, salaries, wealth audits, education/training of legal system officials, as well as their institutional budgets, performance indicators, independent international reports, etc., can also play a big role in advancing accountability.
Norfolk, with its daily, scheduled flights to Schiphol, Amsterdam and its strong digital community, is as good a place as any to locate and develop this global business.
You can find more about us online by visiting: www.opentrial.org
