The Justice Education Society has led and participated in projects across the world. The Society has completed projects in: China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, Guatemala, Mexico and Montenegro. These programs are transferable and focused on building institutional capacity. Almost all involved local "train-the-trainer" components.
1991- 1998 The Justice Education Society was involved in a number of international initiatives in South Africa in the 1990’s. These projects used international best practices which were adapted for use in South Africa. The projects were all done with local partners and included: Legal Training for Black Lawyers 1991; Public Legal Education Mission 1992 and a Canadian Mission to Examine Justice System Community Bridging in 1994.
1999 Integrated Training on Domestic Violence: In partnership with the South Africa National Prosecuting Authority, this project involved the development of a training workshop on handling domestic violence cases for prosecutors, police, judges, and community workers. This program has become the standard for training in South Africa. The implementation plan involved training 1,200 justice system personnel over a seven-year period.
2000 Legal Aid: The Justice Education Society worked with the Legal Aid Board of South Africa on the development of a business plan for case management and technology. Part of this process involved linking with a Canadian Legal Aid organization and sharing programming approaches and issues.
1996 Horn of Africa Capacity Building: The Justice Education Society assisted OXFAM Canada with this project in Ethiopia and Somaliland. It involved working to develop a community justice plan for one of the intermediate-sized Ethiopian cities. The goal was to create a framework for building community justice plans that will assist non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the justice system to work in a coordinated way that identifies and meets community justice needs. In the case of Somaliland, the work was around the development of a legal resource-training centre.
2006-2007 Joining Hands to Stop Domestic Violence in Ethiopia: The Justice Education Society implemented a similar program to the work undertaken in South Africa. It involved training prosecutors, judges and other justice system officials on best international practices for dealing with domestic violence. The NGO project partner was the Ethiopian Women's Lawyers Association.
2003 Public Legal Education: The Justice Education Society developed and delivered a seminar on the role of Public Legal Education in Canada and used site visits to exchange ideas on this theme in Guangdong province, China.
2000 Approaches to Prosecution: The Justice Education Society delivered a three-day seminar with China on Canadian and Chinese approaches to prosecution. Since then, we have hosted several delegations.
2001-2002 Oral Trials Training Project: This project involved working with a Guatemalan NGO and government to improve the oral trials skills of Guatemalan prosecutors. Phase 1 focused on case preparation and courtroom examination skills and involved 60 prosecutors. Phase 2 took place in Canada and focused on training for 12 prosecutors on crime scene investigation skills, the adversarial system, case preparation and witness examination skills. A training manual was developed for use throughout Guatemala.
2002-2008 Crime Scene Investigation Techniques (Basic and Advanced): The Justice Education Society has worked with Guatemalan police and prosecutors to train them in crime scene investigation techniques. The intent was to teach skills on how to protect crime scenes and to gather and protect basic physical evidence: fingerprints, hairs, fibers, blood, photography and scene sketching.
The Society organized 22 seminars in Guatemala for 464 police and prosecutors and developed an advanced training program in Guatemala for over 400 police and prosecutors. Part of this process involved intensive training (five weeks) in Canada.
The project has taken a holistic approach and has trained ambulance workers, the media and human rights investigators on how to respect and protect physical evidence at crime scenes. A public education component was also developed to stop public contamination of crime scenes.
2008-2009 Mayan Traditional Justice Knowledge Exchange: This one-year project is a knowledge exchange between Aboriginal peoples in British Columbia, and Mayan peoples in Guatemala on their respective traditional justice practices.
2007-2008 Mexican Criminal Investigative Techniques & Major Case Management Training: The Justice Education Society, with the support of the Criminal Justice Branch of BC and the RCMP, organized a five-week training seminar of six Mexican prosecutors. The program focused on criminal investigative techniques and major case management.
2006 Central America Crime Scene Examination Seminar: This project involved a seminar forpolice and prosecutors from Central American countries thay examined current crime scene examination practices in the region. Participants examined current practices and discussed possibilities for sharing current expertise and working with Canada on future training. Participants came from Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
2008 Canada-Central America Public Security Strengthening Program: The Justice Education Society sent a delegation to Guatemala on a fact finding mission to discover to what extent, if any, the special methods of investigation authorized by the Law Against Organized Crime, which came into force in mid 2006, have been implemented.
2002 Building Public Confidence in the Justice System: This project involved developing a two-day seminar and a series of workshops for justice system personnel and related NGOs. Topics included how to develop and implement a public consultation on law and systemic reform, the role of Public Legal Education and the role of government communication strategies. A training manual was developed from the pilot program.
2006 The Justice Education Society led public events in Guatemala that focused on crime scene examination and investigation. Events included a screening of the documentary, Duel with the Devil, developing a study guide for the film and distributing the documentary to educational institutions.
2008 The Justice Education Society led public events to share information on Central American gang infiltration in Canada. The activities included events for the BC justice system personnel and a presentation at the Western Canada Gang conference by senior prosecutors from Central America and the Attorney General of Guatemala.
2008 The Justice Education Society led public events to share information on the its work in South Africa and Ethiopia on domestic violence. The activities included: a cross Canada public engagement tour with experts from the Ethiopian Women’s Lawyers Association (EWLA) and the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa; the development of a documentary, It's Time: African Women Join Hands Against Domestic Violence, and distribution of the film to educational institutions.