| Home > About Us > Vision | Français| Site Map |
About Us
Membership Campaign
The ICDAA Board of Directors invites you to become a member or to renew you membership for 2007. Sign Up »
Fundraising Campaign
The ICDAA has launched a special appeal by mobilizing existing members and recruiting new and former members and others who, over the years, have contributed to the advancement of the organization's overall objectives. Donate »
Vision
The ICDAA provides a voice for defence lawyers in the international criminal justice system. We focus on vigorous advocacy for fair trial rights and the organization of a global network of defence counsel, legal associations, legal educators and other professionals.
We start with the assumption that all trials must be conducted fairly. That principle applies as much to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other new international tribunals as it does to long-established national and local courts. In the case of the ICC, this means that the focus must not only be on the policy objective of "ending impunity" by convicting known war criminals and the organizers of genocides but also on the process of investigating and trying accused persons fairly, according to established rules. The safeguarding of fair trial rights for all accused persons, no matter who they are or what they are alleged to have done or how unpopular they may be, is an essential ingredient that contributes to the respect for human rights under the rule of law.
The legal foundation of fair trial procedure is a set of established rules concerning the entire process of criminal justice: treatment of criminal suspects (protection against arbitrary detention and arrest), rigorous respect for the presumption of innocence for all accused persons and the right to a full, fair and vigorous defence at trial. These legal principles are well entrenched in many international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the 1998 Rome Statute creating the ICC.
Legal principles alone do not guarantee fair treatment "on the ground," in detention facilities and courts. Fair treatment rests on how the rules are interpreted and applied by police, prosecutors, judges and defence lawyers. Defence lawyers play a critical role as fair trial watchdogs - often actively challenging how other parties interpret both the law and the factual evidence. To play this role effectively, they need adequate resources and the support of strong institutions.
This means that fair trial procedure rests on an institutional foundation as well as a legal foundation. Our view is that all criminal justice systems must rest on three independent pillars : the judiciary, the prosecution and the legal profession. Defence lawyers, in particular, need the support of an independent base because they are required to engage in a regulated dispute with the prosecution, by questioning the prosecution theory and the evidence adduced against a defendant. In some cases, they also contest either the authority or a particular decision of the court itself. Defence lawyers face the practical challenge of countering a natural "prosecutorial bias" that develops as police, prosecutors and judges work together to arrest suspects and charge them with crimes. (See Third Pillar)
The ICDAA acts both as a fair trial watchdog (legal foundation) and an advocate for a truly independent Third Pillar of the international criminal justice (institutional foundation).