opentrial.org - The OpenTrial Oath

OpenTrial, a Norfolk initiative, is the world's independent, civil check on legal systems. Only by engaging civil society can the rule of law properly spread and take hold around the world.

Click here to help empower civil society for justice

and the OpenTrial for Dignity & Justice Group on Other Norfolk groundbreakers include: Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of Great Britain; Elizabeth Fry, prison and social reformer; Horatio Nelson, tactically and strategically inspirational naval leader; Thomas Paine, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.; Charles Townshend, prominent protagonist in the British agricultural revolution; Edward Richardson, agricultural trade unionist; and Thomas William Coke, pro-civil liberties politician, agricultural reformer and supporter of American independence.

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"An injustice sufferer's trauma, sense of vulnerability and powerlessness must cease to be compounded by the realisation that few will lift a finger to help."

Testimonial

OpenTrial assists victims of legal system dysfunction.

Since June of 2011, I have received continuing and unstinting assistance from OpenTrial and benefited enormously Read more

CASES & PLACES TO WATCH

The cases in Turkey of Omur Cagdas Ersoy (charged with belonging to a left-wing armed faction that no longer exists) and Cengiz Dogan (a Kurd, effectively charged with being in two places at the same time). As the government gets tougher, it now has imprisoned: 500 students for the alleged membership of terrorist groups, around 76 journalists, 47 lawyers and thousands of Kurd sympathisers.

Is Yulia Tymoshenko likely to receive a fair trial in Ukraine? Read more

Latest: The trials of medical staff from the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, Bahrain, have been brought forward to 30th January. There are fears this is to thwart international monitoring by observers who arrive in March. Read more

Red Travel/Business Warning: Bali, Indonesia. Corrupt elements in the police and prosecution service, which concoct criminal cases and extort, remain a threat to business people & tourists. Here, from the island, are some classic examples of the dangers of legal system extortion and the tyranny of the corrupt.

Red Business Warning: The Economist reports that: "one in six businessmen in Russia has been prosecuted for an alleged economic crime over the past decade." Read more

Fair Trial

FAIR TRIAL

The basic criteria of this basic human right are:

PRE-TRIAL RIGHTS

1. The prohibition on arbitrary arrest and detention

2. The right to know the reasons for arrest

3. The right to legal counsel

4. The right to a prompt appearance before a judge to challenge the lawfulness of arrest and detention

Read more

“It is the worst in us which is being systematically activated and enlarged—egotism, hypocrisy, indifference, cowardice, fear, resignation, and the desire to escape every personal responsibility…” Vaclav Havel

Swear the OpenTrial Oath and help revive the ethic of Aristises "The Just" (530 - 468 B.C.). A quiet, steady man who loved justice and truth, he was not interested in increasing his own wealth or prestige and despised mercenary motives in public men.

The Greeks looked back on the stewardship of Aristides as a golden age of honesty and fairness.

Despite all the trophies he won, he was most proud of the fact that he did not make any profit out of public service.

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The OpenTrial Oath has been adapted from the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors of medicine who care for our bodies. Similarly, law and order professionals are there to help ensure the health of our societies.

The OpenTrial Oath

for all police, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and rule of law advocates.

I swear to fulfil, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won gains for justice of those in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of all in society, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of prioritising self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement.

I will remember that there is art to the law, and that warmth, sympathy, compassion and understanding may outweigh harsh treatment and punishment.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not", nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed in the interests of justice.

I will fully respect those I attend to, in the interests of justice and the rule of law.

It is given to me to serve justice; this awesome responsibility, in addition to being undertaken with great integrity and diligence, must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not deal with a number, a statistic, but a human being for whom injustice may affect the person's family and economic stability.

My responsibility includes these related matters, if I am to adequately uphold justice and the rule of law.

I will faithfully uphold the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.

I will fully support and adhere to the principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards.

I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, irrespective of race, colour, sex, creed or wherewithal.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of first warding off injustice as I work to see justice done.