In this blog, Dr Martin Gramatikov, HiiL’s Knowledge and Research Director and author of our latest Policy Brief on the political commitment to people-centred justice (PCJ), introduces the brief’s key insights. Drawing on his own experiences and discussions with global experts, Dr. Gramatikov explores the challenges and opportunities of transforming ambitious PCJ rhetoric into meaningful action.
In the past few years, I have attended many conferences, workshops, and online events dedicated to PCJ. I witnessed high-level justice actors who passionately endorsed putting the users at the centre of the justice system. I heard many different interpretations of PCJ. All this contrasts with the more sober assessment of what has been done.
This contrast between talk and reality made me think about how committed the justice actors are to PCJ. Management consultant Peter Drucker once said, « Policy is what is done, not what is said ». I have observed varying levels of belief, resistance, confusion, and outright denial regarding PCJ.
All that raises the question of how authentic the political commitment to PCJ is. What motivates and discourages justice actors from committing to PCJ? What does commitment look like? What are the results that committed actors achieve and non-committed actors do not achieve?
To delve deeper I spoke to 12 knowledgeable individuals from different organisations and countries and set out to write a Policy Brief for HiiL on political commitment to PCJ.
The picture that emerges is complex but optimistic. Despite the powerful political, organisational, and personal motives to pay lip service to PCJ, there are strategies to forge real and lasting political commitment that lead to leadership, action, and results.
Drivers of Political Commitment
On the positive side, personal leadership, a supportive environment, a sense of urgency and vivid examples are key. An enlightened leader with a vision and a plan is essential for making PCJ a reality. PCJ takes place easier in societies where other major policy areas embrace people-centricity. Lastly, convincing examples of how PCJ services make the lives of users, service providers and policymakers easier are crucial for committing to the movement.
Political commitment to PCJ cannot be taken for granted. Strong political, professional, and personal interests often reinforce the status quo, acting as significant barriers to shifting the focus towards the justice users. To drive meaningful change, the broader PCJ community must constantly analyse the context and understand the motivations influencing individual and collective decision-makers.
Why Leaders May Hesitate
What makes political leaders look cautiously to PCJ? Often, PCJ is perceived as an additional programme which will compete for a limited and insufficient pool of resources. The reality is that the justice system is not one coherent institutional system with aligned needs and interests. Institutions, political actors and service providers compete for resources. Inevitably, people-centricity has different appeal for different actors.
Putting the users at the centre of justice is an excellent slogan but it could be perceived as a power downgrade by those benefitting from their elite status. Policymakers, judges, successful lawyers, bureaucrats, and powerful criminal justice actors have a lot of stake in keeping the status quo. Making justice work for the users also looks like a risk to profitable business models in the multi-billion dollar legal and justice services industry.
A call for evidence
Lastly, the PCJ movement must do much more to demonstrate why people-centricity is a win-win strategy for bridging the justice gap. A justice minister has a short time horizon. She is looking for success in the next couple of months. This success must be tangible and convincing. As a community, we need to do much more to provide compelling evidence of PCJ, how it works, what is required to make it a reality and how its benefits are distributed. Justice leaders are pragmatic individuals and their commitment goes through a clear understanding of the path forward.
Indeed, political commitment to PCJ is not easy to achieve. Many risks favour the status quo. However, to establish a people-centric purpose and culture, as the OECD Recommendation stipulates, true political commitment must be forged everywhere PCJ is being pursued.
Go to the Justice Dashboard to read or download the policy brief on political commitment to PCJ:
Dr. Martin Gramatikov
martin.gramatikov@hiil.org
