The Group

The Judicial Integrity Group is an independent, autonomous, not-for-profit and voluntary entity, owned and driven by its members, all of whom are (or have been) heads of the judiciary or senior judges in their respective countries or at the regional or international level, enjoying independence from the executive, and who share common values and beliefs on the integrity of the judiciary and a determination to deepen and broaden the quality of the administration of justice in appropriate ways.

The Judicial Integrity Group was formed in early 2000 following discussions, initiated by Nihal Jayawickrama and Jeremy Pope in the context of their then-involvement with the Centre for Research and Innovation of Transparency International , with eight Chief Justices from four African and four Asian countries. The Chief Justices met in Vienna under the auspices of the UN Global Programme Against Corruption. They agreed to respond to a growing body of evidence that, in many countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe and Latin America, the public were losing confidence in their judicial systems, mainly due to their perception that the judiciary was a corrupt institution.

The objectives of the Group are:

(a) To formulate and develop the concept of judicial accountability;

(b) To design mechanisms which are capable of being utilized by the judiciary to strengthen the integrity of the judicial system;

(c) To formulate and promote standards, guidelines and instruments, as appropriate, relating to vital aspects of the judicial system based on its own experience; and

(d) To identify, and assist in the implementation of measures of judicial reform which are demonstrably effective in eliminating corruption within judicial systems and providing greater, more expeditious, and less expensive access to justice.