JUSTICE

Description

JUSTICE is a human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom, founded in 1957.

It is the British section of the International Commission of Jurists and is a cross-party membership organisation whose members include barristers, solicitors, judges, legal academics and law students. It works mainly by briefing parliamentarians and policy-makers on the human rights implications of legislation, producing evidence-based research and expert legal analysis rather than public campaigning. It also intervenes in cases of public importance before UK courts, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, and it lobbies European Union institutions, the Council of Europe and United Nations treaty bodies.

Its main areas of work are human rights, criminal justice, EU law and the rule of law, covering issues such as asylum and immigration, counter-terrorism, equality and discrimination, privacy, legal aid and access to justice, and the role of the judiciary. Past work has helped shape the UK ombudsman system, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and the Human Rights Act 1998.

JUSTICE Scotland, launched in 2012, is its branch focused on the Scottish legal system. It works on issues such as access to legal advice for people detained in police stations, support for democratic and evidence-based lawmaking, the expansion of human rights protections in Scotland, and the rights of neurodivergent people within the justice system. Its work is overseen by JUSTICE members through a Council drawn from its wider organisation.