Justice Indicators for Post-Conflict Settings: A Review

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there has been a proliferation of indicators designed to measure and quantify the delivery of justice services. This paper describes the range of justice system indicator instruments that are currently in use and the data sources and measures that they employ. The authors identify 53 instruments assessing various aspects of the rule of law and a subset of 31 instruments that specifically address the operation of law enforcement agencies, judicial systems, corrections, and informal justice mechanisms. This review, conducted for the United Nations as part of the Rule of Law Indicators Project, considers the strengths and shortcomings of existing justice indicators in the light of common challenges facing countries recovering from conflict, including: political instability, problems of legitimacy and corruption; safety and security; and, challenges relating to capacity and infrastructure. We conclude with suggestions for supplementing existing indicators to develop measures that can inform efforts to enhance the rule of law in post-conflict settings.