Strengthening Criminal Justice Systems During and After the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Pandemic

Calls upon Member States to implement, as appropriate, the Kyoto Declaration on Advancing Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law: Towards the Achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Recommends that Member States take into account lessons learned and best practices applied during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to make criminal justice systems more effective, accountable, transparent, inclusive, responsive and better prepared for similar future challenges, by recognizing the need to adapt to epidemics and pandemics, including through, as appropriate, promoting digitalization, the use of technology, health-care services and health-related improvement measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including for the protection of criminal justice staff and officials, rehabilitation and reintegration into society, and alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences, in accordance with domestic law, and to that end examine alternatives and promote the exchange of information on how to address the challenges to such reform efforts, including funding;

Encourages Member States, in implementing holistic and comprehensive crime prevention and criminal justice policies, to promote, as appropriate, alternatives to imprisonment, from the pretrial stage to the post-sentencing stage, taking into account the background, gender, age and other specific circumstances of offenders, including their vulnerability, such as in relation to health, and the objective of their rehabilitation and reintegration into society;

Also encourages Member States, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, to take appropriate measures to ensure that, subject to their constitutional principles and the basic concepts of their legal systems, sentencing for criminal offences is proportionate to the gravity of the offence;

Further encourages Member States to mainstream a gender perspective into their criminal justice systems and to take into account the specific needs of women prisoners and women offenders when developing, monitoring and evaluating responses to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the criminal justice system;

Recommends that Member States promote the application of the relevant provisions of the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), in particular in terms of improving the detention conditions for both pretrial and post-trial detainees and the capacities of prison and correctional institution staff and other relevant officers, and promoting health-care services in prisons;

Also recommends that Member States take appropriate measures to improve the overall effectiveness and capacity of the criminal justice system, including by addressing overcrowding in detention and correctional facilities, ensuring access to timely, effective, adequately resourced and affordable legal aid for those without sufficient means or when the interests of justice so require, providing adequate human and material resources, expertise and tools, including modern communications and case-management tools, to facilitate international cooperation, such as mutual legal assistance and extradition, and considering the use of alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences along with restorative justice processes at relevant stages of criminal justice proceedings in accordance with domestic legislation, giving due consideration to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules) and preventive measures such as community outreach;

Further recommends that Member States endeavour to promote a rehabilitative environment in correctional facilities, including through designing and implementing effective treatment programmes based on an individual assessment of the needs and risks of offenders, and provide offenders with access to vocational and technical training and educational programmes, which create opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge needed for joining the workforce and successfully reintegrating into society and reducing the risks of reoffending, which may, inter alia, help in addressing the problem of prison overcrowding;

Invites Member States to exchange, including through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, information on national legislation, best practices and technical assistance and to strengthen international cooperation in addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the criminal justice system, including to its facilities, institutions and non-custodial settings, taking into account the contributions of relevant stakeholders such as civil society and academia, where appropriate and in accordance with domestic law, with a view to better preparing for similar future challenges;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as the leading entity of the United Nations supporting Member States in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice through the provision of technical assistance and capacity-building, based on their needs and priorities, as well as through its normative work, research and expertise, to conduct in close consultation with Member States, and within existing extrabudgetary resources, further studies on the impact of COVID-19 on criminal justice systems and to provide recommendations on advancing criminal justice reforms, with an emphasis on the future preparedness of the criminal justice system, in particular prison systems, to tackle challenges arising from pandemics and widespread health-related issues;

Invites the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to consider including in their work programmes the issue of criminal justice system reform in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with a view to understanding how such reforms can be achieved more effectively, including, where appropriate, by strengthening cooperation between the justice and health sectors, taking into account the relevant Sustainable Development Goals and targets, contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and noting the efforts of Member States to achieve them;

Invites Member States and other donors to provide extrabudgetary resources for the purposes described above, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the United Nations.