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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: International Justice Mission (IJM)
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 1997
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Project URL: http://www.ijm.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - IJM conducts investigation/documentation operations to free families from bonded slavery and hold abusers accountable, ensuring that public justice systems effectively work for the poor.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Millions of vulnerable individuals in the developing world suffer brutal abuses. In these countries, public justice systems do not work for the poor, leaving them susceptible to forces of oppression. The great challenge and weakness of the modern human rights movement has been the absence of meaningful enforcement mechanisms. In the absence of a credible law enforcement threat, victimization continues unhindered, and masses of poor and vulnerable individuals are victimized. IJM understands that rescuing victims from oppression will not in itself end slavery. Structured rehabilitation programs must be in place to ensure that former slaves are equipped to rebuild their emotional and physical lives and ensure that they remain free. Additionally, IJM works for sustainable, long-term change that will protect future victims and prevent future abuses by ensuring that abusers are held accountable for their crimes through fines, jail time and closures of businesses, equipping the local authorities to do the work of justice in and for their communities, and creating social demand for change.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - IJM operates under a collaborative casework model through which IJM investigators, lawyers and social workers intervene in individual cases of abuse in partnership with state and local authorities. Moving individual abuse cases through the justice system from the investigative to the prosecutorial stage, IJM determines the specific source of corruption, lack of resources, or lack of goodwill in the system that denies victims the protection of legal systems. Collaborating with local authorities, IJM addresses points of brokenness to meet the victims’ urgent needs.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - IJM will add approximately one additional office per year. In 2008, each office will implement multi-year projects to reduce the victimization rate in a category of abuse within a defined geographic area. IJM will expand its process of transforming public justice systems to work for the poor and vulnerable by: a) conducting baseline studies in each location to determine the extent of the need, b) developing plans for evaluating the transformative impact of each project. Typically, this will include the baselines and past-project surveys conducted by local consultants. c) continuing to conduct casework to leverage our work on individual cases to create public justice deterrents against the specific category of abuse over 3-5 years, d) supplementing casework with additional activities aimed at creating political will and social demand for the accomplishment of the project goal, including church mobilization, community organizing, and advocacy with targeted government officials and media campaigns, and e) building the capacity of local justice officials through training and technical assistance.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - IJM operates with government approval and acknowledgment in all countries in which it is active, relying on local government and NGO partners to work successfully. IJM investigators, lawyers and social workers intervene in individual cases of abuse in partnership with state and local authorities in the countries in which they work.
Each of IJM’s 14 overseas field offices provides rescued victims with aftercare – both in partnership with local organizations and through a team of staff social workers – to ensure that they are able to heal from the horrors of their ordeals, be restored to wholeness and hope, testify against their abusers and reduce the chances that they will be re-victimized in the future. IJM additionally partners with national advocacy organizations in Honduras (Association for a More Just Society) and Peru (Paz y Esperanza) to serve thousands of victims of human rights abuses in each of these countries. Through these Casework Alliances (CWAs), IJM supports the services of a full-time attorney to conduct casework for the CWA. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - To prevent abuses by rescuing victims, bringing their perpetrators to justice, and strengthening and transforming public justice systems in the developing world.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - Through our casework, IJM directly provides rescue to thousands of vulnerable men, women and children victimized by oppression each year. Additionally, by bringing individual perpetrators to justice, IJM effectively protects those who would have otherwise suffered under the abuse of these specific perpetrators. Even more powerfully, IJM deters abuses by other potential perpetrators who will be dissuaded from abusive conduct by the penalties they see visited upon those who commit such crimes. In so doing, IJM renders effective protection to thousands of other at-risk individuals and families who will be shielded by the deterrent power of justice.
As part of our efforts to transform public justice systems, IJM will educate, train, engage and equip national leaders into the work of justice in and for their communities, ensuring lasting structural changes. These national leaders will provide a concrete model of strategy, engagement, practical action, and courage that will have an explosive multiplier effect as others see how abuses can be stopped.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - Pre- and post-project baseline studies will determine the scope and extent of the need and measure the transformative impact of field office projects.
IJM’s impact will also be measured by the extent to which respective field offices document changes in public sentiment and national policy towards human rights abuses and structural changes in national judicial systems. Internal weekly, monthly and yearly reports measure how effectively IJM is rescuing victims, facilitating perpetrator accountability and providing successful victim aftercare.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - IJM’s immediate beneficiaries are the men, women and children in the world who are victims of the most brutal abuses of their basic rights including forced prostitution and bonded slavery because of the breakdown of functioning mechanisms of public justice in their communities. As IJM significantly strengthens, expands and leverages our model of justice, future generations of would-be victims are preemptively affected, and the transformed developing countries are able to provide sustainable justice for their people.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Because the poor cannot afford to pay for the justice they need and deserve, as an organization and for each of our projects, IJM raises 100% of its budget goals each year. IJM receives support from individuals (60.9%), foundations (29.4%), government agencies (2.3%) and other sources such as churches and affiliate offices (7.4%). IJM will continue to fund this initiative with support from individuals, foundations, government agencies and other sources.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: IJM's 2008 operating budget for all offices is $22.6 million. In 2007, IJM raised more than $20 million to fund its work. IJM currently employs 302 full time and 10 part time employees. Most employees are nationals in their respective offices (i.e. Cambodian leaders in Cambodia). IJM's headquarters are in Arlington, VA and we have 14 field offices in 10 countries through Asia, Africa and Latin America. In addition, IJM has casework alliance partners in Honduras and Peru. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - The United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery estimates 20 million people are held in bonded slavery. According to UNICEF, there are nearly two million children worldwide in the commercial sex trade. IJM’s model for justice will enable us to rescue more children from forced prostitution and free more individuals and families from forced labor.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - In an effort to meet the growing demand for justice in world in an increasing number of countries, IJM continues to increase its annual operating budget each year by significant percentages each year. Accordingly, IJM must work hard to reach these budget goals and ensure that we cultivate a broad, deep and sustainable base of financial support for years to come.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Founded in 1997, IJM began operations in response to a massive need. Historically, humanitarian and missions organizations worked faithfully and courageously to bring healthcare, education, food and other vital services to those who needed them. However, little had been done to actually restrain the oppressors who are a source of great harm to the vulnerable.
Concerned by this need, a group of lawyers, human rights professionals and public officials launched an extensive study of the injustices witnessed by overseas missionaries and relief and development workers. This study, surveying more than 65 organizations and representing 40,000 overseas workers, uncovered a nearly unanimous awareness of abuses of power by police and other authorities in the communities where they served. Without the resources or expertise to confront the abuse and to bring rescue to the victims, these overseas workers required the assistance of trained public justice professionals. Gary Haugen, working as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the United Nations’ Investigator in Charge in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, founded International Justice Mission as a response to this massive need. IJM celebrated 10 years of conducting casework in 2007. Over this period, IJM has exploded from one full-time staff member based in Washington, DC, to more than 300 staff members who serve throughout the United States as well as in and through our 14 overseas offices in South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. The vast majority of our staff members are nationals from their respective countries. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Sharon Cohn Wu directs IJM’s operations in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia, developing intervention strategies and advocating with local and national authorities. She regularly briefs government officials in the U.S. and abroad regarding trafficking issues.
Sharon testified before a Senate subcommittee on the domestic impact of international sex trafficking and before a House subcommittee on sex trafficking in South Asia. Her efforts have resulted in the release of hundreds of children in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Contact Information:
Michelle Conn
Director of Major Gifts and Foundations International Justice Mission (IJM) (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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Rescuing and Restoring Victims of Slavery
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