REPORT OF THE COURSE
The 176th International Training Course (Online)“Achieving Inclusive Societies through Effective Criminal Justice Policies and Practices”
1. Duration and Participants• From 15 November to 9 December 2021
• 17 overseas participants from 11 jurisdictions
2. Programme Overview
Goal 16 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) seeks to achieve peaceful and inclusive
societies, and this training course aimed to promote the role of criminal justice in achieving such societies.
This programme offers participants an opportunity to share experiences and knowledge on (i) Effectivemeasures to support crime victims and (ii) Effective measures in the pre-trial, trial and sentencing stages
to prevent reoffending and facilitate offenders’ social reintegration. This programme was exclusively
conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
3. The Content of the Programme(1) Lectures
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the programme, all lectures delivered by external lecturers
in English, including their respective Q&A sessions, were conducted in a live online format. However,since the participants needed to continue their professional and family duties during the programme,
other lectures were recorded in advance and broadcast on-demand. Specifically, participants wereasked to watch on-demand video lectures and to submit their questions for the lectures via an online
learning management system. The lecturers then answered the questions during recorded Q&A
sessions that were broadcast on-demand. This way, we tried to provide both convenience andinteractivity while delivering the training on demand.
In this programme, participants also watched on-demand video lectures by UNAFEI professors on thecriminal justice system in Japan as a preliminary assignment and submitted their questions online.
In addition, the following two visiting experts from overseas and three ad hoc lecturers from Japan
were invited to share their knowledge on the theme of this training course:⃝ Visiting Experts• Ms. Vera Tkachenko
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)“Rethinking incarceration: Promoting partnerships to reduce reoffending”•His Honour Judge Jonathan Cooper
Deputy Resident Judge for Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom“Community Sentences in England and Wales”⃝ Ad hoc lecturer• Mr. MUTO IsseiAssistant Director, Crime Victim Support Office
Education, Training and Welfare Division,Commissioner-General's Secretariat, National Police Agency“Crime Victim Support Provided by the Police”•Mr. HONDA Yuichiro
Public Prosecutor
Chief, Social Reintegration Support Office
General Affairs Department, Tokyo District Public Prosecutors’ Office“Efforts of the Social Reintegration Support Office”•Ms. TOMITA Satoko
Attorney at Law
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Chief, International Affairs Office, Japan Legal Support Center“Japan Legal Support Center”(2) Group Work
Participants were divided into two groups based on time zones and the themes of their choice for theIndividual Presentations sessions and discussions.
 Individual Presentations
Participants shared the practices and the challenges in their respective jurisdictions regarding thetheme of the Programme through their individual presentations. All the presentations wererecorded and uploaded online for reference by participants in other groups or those who could notattend the sessions.
 Discussions
Participants had fruitful discussions on the themes of the Programme: (i) Effective measures tosupport crime victims and (ii) Effective measures in the pre-trial, trial and sentencing stages toprevent reoffending and facilitate offenders’ social reintegration.
•Effective measures to support crime victims
The participants discussed and shared their perceptions of the differences in victim and witness
protection systems in different countries. This served as the basis for the following discussion.
In addition to the above, we shared knowledge about the system and its operation in eachcountry, including measures to prevent secondary victimization, including witness protection,
the use of victim impact statements to appropriately consider the impact of the incident on thevictim in sentencing, legal aid for victims who are particularly vulnerable and need specialconsideration, such as underage victims and female victims of sexual crimes, and damage
recovery through restorative justice in each jurisdiction. The usefulness, challenges andoperation of these systems were the subject of discussion. Although the systems adopted tosupport victims differ in each jurisdiction, prevention of secondary victimization by criminal
justice actors is the first priority, and practical efforts to enable investigators and judicial officers
to treat victims in an appropriate manner, as well as the enhancement of training to realize such
efforts, are necessary to reduce the barriers for victims to report their victimization. It was also
shared that these efforts enable victims to report the damage, facilitate the investigation ofcases and enhance the cooperation of victims in conducting trials.

•Effective measures in the pre-trial, trial and sentencing stages to prevent reoffending andfacilitate offenders’ social reintegration
As measures to reintegrate offenders into society, the legal frameworks and practices of various
jurisdictions were introduced, including alcohol and drug courts, and various educational
programmes to promote the reintegration of offenders into society. In addition, in many countries,
prisons are suffering from overcrowding, which hinders appropriate correctional education foroffenders. As the causes of overcrowding, participants shared the different problematic situations
in each jurisdiction, such as the overuse of arrest and pre-trial detention, strict bail criteria andinsufficient use of non-custodial sentencing. Then the need to improve the situation was shared.
Based on this, measures to improve practice were discussed.

(3) Action Plans
Each participant concluded the programme by presenting their own action plans based on thechallenges they identified and what they learned in the lectures, presentations by the colleagues anddiscussions.
4. Feedback from the Participants
Most of the participants said that they would have preferred to have the training in Japan because theywould have liked to visit the relevant facilities to deepen their understanding of the actual practices, andthey would have liked more time to interact with each other, including in informal situations. On the other
hand, they also commented that they were able to cultivate knowledge online.

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5. Comments from the Programming Officer
Although we see words and concepts such as the SDGs and inclusive society more and more, criminal
justice practitioners are not often aware of them in their daily practice. However, it is important for themto think about the nature and history of criminal justice and the direction they should aim toward in thefuture by cultivating their consideration of topics that are closely related to practice. It can also serve asa milestone when dealing with difficult cases for which there are no fixed answers or when considering
the framework and operation of a new system. In this sense, this training course included a long-term
perspective toward 2030, the target year of the SDGs. I believe that this training course provided many
useful hints for our long-term vision for the next 10 years. As the programming officer of this training
course, I was exposed to a variety of ideas relating to inclusive societies, and I feel that I was able toupdate my own mindset. I hope the participants are able to utilize the knowledge gained from thistraining course for the future development of criminal justice procedures in their jurisdictions.

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