Strengthening Justice Systems across the Americas: The Colombian case (The Fair Play Project)

The Fair Play Project will help public, private, and civil society leaders take the necessary steps to strengthen justice¿a vital component of the rule of law and an essential vehicle for promoting democracy, human rights, and social and economic development. The project will produce new data and knowledge on the level of access, efficiency, impartiality, and effectiveness of justice in the Americas, starting with a pilot in Colombia as a primary object of this project. Rather than an in-depth academic diagnostic of justice and the variables that influence it, the tool will serve as a ¿thermometer¿ that periodically measures the status of justice while offering actionable recommendations on how to improve it.The broader project (The Fair Play Project) will seek to expand measurement to at least five countries, employing the measurement strategy constructed to analyze the Colombian case. Findings will be featured in an online, interactive dashboard and analysis and distributed via an annual report with examples of best practices and policy recommendations on improving justice in the Americas. The expected outcome of the Fair Play Project will go deeper than a dashboard. By examining a relatively narrow set of issues in some depth, the goal is to compare countries and to understand the drivers of countries' relative performance. In this context, the Colombian case is vital because, being the chosen pilot, it serves as the project's laboratory and driving force. During the 13 months of execution of this project, the principal investigators, co-investigators, and research assistants will analyze the Colombian case from the proposed methodology, condensing the research results in a report and an academic article for an indexed journal.