Justice For All Programme: POS Foundation receives international award

Facilitator for the Justice for All program(JFAP), POS Foundation, has been honored at the just-ended World Justice Forum held in the Hague, Netherlands.

The POS Foundation and 4 others were shortlisted and awarded out of the total of 30 finalists. 

The four others are; Cambodia Bridges, Red Dot Foundation from India, Assylum Connect, and Transparence ITng.

Delivering a video presentation on the project topic: Justice for All Amid COVID-19: alleviating prison overcrowding with mobile, in-prison special courts, Executive Director of POS Foundation, Mr. Jonathan Osei Owusu highlighted the problems of the program such as the inaccessibility of fair trials, inadequate legal education and representation, and legislative loopholes which impede efficient and fair justice delivery.

Touching on the program approach, he noted that it alleviates prison overcrowding by creating mobile, in-prison special courts to adjudicate prisoner cases throughout the country. 

He added that the JFAP has established Virtual Courts to deal with cases that led to no COVID recorded cases in Ghana’s prisons.

Mr. Osei Owusu also revealed the fact Kenya had come to understudy Ghana’s program which it is implementing under the name; “All For Justice” thus calling for the same to be replicated in ECOWAS states via a proposed Regional Criminal Justice System Network.

On the impact of the program, he said it has reduced the remand prison population from 33% in 2007 to 12% in January 2022.

In his speech upon receipt of the award, Mr. Osei Owusu thanked the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, and dedicated the award to the prisoners in Ghana, the JFAP steering committee made up of the Judicial Service, the Ghana Prisons and Police Service, the Attorney-General’s Office, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Ghana Legal Aid Commission and Civil Society.

The World Justice Challenge is a global competition that promotes good practice in high-time projects and policies that advance the principle of rule of law.

The 2022 project criteria centered on structural inequalities, and governance, weakness in access to justice, anti-corruption and open government, equal rights, and non – discrimination.

In all, 305 applications from 118 countries were received out of which 30 became finalists and 5 winners awarded.

The Justice for All Programme (JFAP) is a State-led intervention, established in 2007 to alleviate prison overcrowding by setting up Mobile In-prison Special Courts to adjudicate remand/Pre-trial prisoner cases throughout the country. 

The initiative enjoys the collective efforts of the Judicial Service of Ghana, the Office of the Attorney-General, the Ghana Prisons and Police Service, CHRAJ, as well as POS Foundation (a civil society body that serves as facilitators).

The JFAP has helped reduce the Remand population from 4,285 (33%)out of a total prison population of 13,133 in 2007 to 2,020 representing 13.4 % of the current prison population of 15,071 as of November 2019. 

The JFAP received commendation from the UN Member States at the 3rd Review Cycle of Ghana’s Human Right Record under the UN Universal Periodic Review Mechanism in November 2017, while other sister African countries have come to understudy the programme and are replicating same in their respective countries.