The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA 2015) was enacted to address several challenges in the administration of the criminal justice process with a view to enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in the justice delivery system in Nigeria. However, despite the passage of the Act, its effective implantation into the criminal justice system has remained slow and the age-long challenges in the criminal justice process for which the Act was enacted still persist. Findings from two public perception surveys previously conducted by CLEEN Foundation on the effectiveness of the Administration of Justice in Nigeria across five (5) states namely Adamawa, Cross River, Imo, Lagos, Kaduna and FCT in February 2017 and March 2018 respectively under the first phase of the project on ‘Monitoring the Criminal Justice Administration Reform Process’ , provided readily available and credible data and information on the administration of criminal justice process as well as the implementation of the ACJA 2015 in Nigeria that can be used for policy making by criminal justice actors and other researchers and academia interested in criminal justice issues. This has helped to begin to address the shortage of reliable and measurable data on the state of administration of criminal justice in Nigeria.
The
Project on Strengthening Accountability and Transparency in the Administration
of Criminal Justice System is a follow up project seeking to sustain close
monitoring of the Criminal Justice Reform Process in Nigeria through deepening the
data collection process that was initiated under previous projects to provide
stakeholders with credible data and information on the state of criminal justice
system and the reform process, building the capacity of law enforcement officials
on the ACJA 2015 to improve their knowledge and understanding of their roles as
stipulated in the Act to their ensure effective compliance and sustain advocacy
for the implementation of the Act by the relevant criminal justice institutions
through activities targeted towards awareness creation.
The
project objectives include
- Provide reliable and credible data on the implementation of ACJA 2015 and other similar state related laws that can support stakeholders and citizens to understand better the extent, trends and challenges in the implementation of the laws as well as its domestication by states in order to drive robust advocacy
- Improve the knowledge and technical capacity and skills through training of law enforcement and security agencies personnel to effectively understand and play their role in the implementation of ACJA
- enhance public awareness on the provisions and implementation of the ACJA through the development of documentaries spotlighting critical criminal justice issues and the development of IEC materials for the police and citizens
The project currently enjoys the
buy-in of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC),
National Human Rights Commission, relevant Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice
Actors, and CSOs.