ILLUSTRATION:^ NATALIE^ FOSS021 STARTIn the fight against rogue governments using
the courts to silence dissent, the activist’s
weapon of choice is a fully loaded smartphoneAmal Clooney’sapp of justiceCourts are meant to rectify society’s
imbalances, and offer redress
against abuses of power. Yet many
governments use the judiciary to
silence critics and minorities.
“Illegitimate judicial proceedings
are increasingly used as a ‘rule of law’
shield to fend off legitimate criticism,”
says David Pressman, executive
director of the Clooney Foundation
for Justice (CFJ) and a former US
special ambassador to the UN. Rogue
states are using courts to have rivals
prosecuted on spurious grounds and
imprisoned arbitrarily.
No system exists to monitor the
fairness of trials around the world:
some receive media attention, others
are followed only by local activists.
To bridge this gap, the CFJ (founded
by George and Amal Clooney in June
2016) set up TrialWatch in April 2019, to
train individuals in the basics of trial-
monitoring, and to use the TrialWatch
app, developed with Microsoft, to
collect information about trials of
interest. That information is passed
to human rights lawyers to write
assessments that, in time, will form a
global justice index – ranking countries
by the fairness of their legal system.
By early May 2019, TrialWatch was
monitoring 18 trials, from Nigeria toBelarus, a number the organisation
wants to increase. “TrialWatch aims
to solve the challenge of scaling trial-
monitoring,” says Pressman.
Trial-monitoring increases
transparency, creates a record of
the trial, and can facilitate reform.
To help people become monitors, the
CFJ developed a set of guidelinesaccessible to non-experts. The
TrialWatch smartphone app gives
monitors the tools to collect
essential information, and store
it securely. The training helps
ensure that they record the right
information, and straightforward
yes/no questionnaires streamline
the gathering of data.
Within the app, monitors can
also take photos, shoot videos and
record audio – which is useful, given
that many trials are conducted in
languages that aren’t widely spoken.
Audio files are translated into English
by Microsoft’s Azure Cognitive
Services. All this data is securely
uploaded to the cloud, to be pored
over by the CFJ’s legal experts.
“Our hope is that TrialWatch can
help expose states when they fall
short,” Pressman says. “It can
demonstrate the ways that states
are instrumentalising the courts in
an effort to legitimise human rights
abuses.” Sanjana Varghese cfj.org09-19-STtrialWatch.indd 19 27/06/2019 14:53